


Run From The Future, Run From The Past

by Philosophical_Army



Category: Ant-Man (Movies), Black Panther (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amputation, BAMF Tony Stark, Both are MCU!Tony, Civil War Team Iron Man, Extremis Tony Stark, F/M, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, I will try not to, M/M, No Promises No Lies, Not Canon Compliant, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Tony Stark, Redeeming Natasha Romonoff, Resurrection, Self-cest, Slow Burn, There isn't going to be heavy bashing, Time Travel Fix-It, Tony Has Issues, Tony-centric, Tony-cest, irregular updates
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-03-07 04:03:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18865327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Philosophical_Army/pseuds/Philosophical_Army
Summary: To be honest, when Tony said that he could save himself, he didn't think it would be this literal.ORIM1 Tony meets Post Endgame Tony.****First chapter posted on May 18, 2019





	1. Backlash

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [a fire made from coals of regret](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13757061) by [themikeymonster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themikeymonster/pseuds/themikeymonster). 



> Okay, so I started to write this after I saw this prompt of Astor20
> 
> Story Prompt: Sometime after Infinity War or close to it or after Endgame Tony Stark goes back in time (either deliberately or some random accident your choice) and stays there with past!Tony Stark. Future Tony helps him to prepare for Thanos and helps him getting involved with Shield/Hydra shady business. Also avoid the Avengers and there abuse and gaslighting and betrayals. (Because I’m still salty about basically everything). Both Tonys get an actual team that appreciates them. Also real friends and family. Jarvis also lives with Friday too. And they both live happily ever after, after they squish that giant grape.
> 
> *
> 
> I am not sure if this is on your liking but hey, I tried people :"D  
> There is references to Mortal Kombat 11, at least in this chapter ^^"

_**∆ May 18, 2028 Δ** _

 

“It should be harmless.” Tony muttered to himself as he looked at the plans of the time machine once again, after five whole years. To be honest, Tony wasn’t sure why he was really looking at this considering he had other things to do than being nostalgic; like attending at his and Harley’s training session about operating the suit or seeing Peter about updating Karen’s code against intruders, setting alarms even if it somehow happened. “Friday, run some simulations. Add the variable of how it could go without the Pym Particles. Alert me when you are done.”

 

_ “On it, Boss.” _

 

As the AI said this and started the simulations, Tony took a deep breath and made his way out of the workshop and towards the elevator to get up to the ground level of the compound. He hoped no one was there; after all it was 11 AM, everyone had something to do at this hour. Either they were at school or on a mission, to which he half listened to, but forgot about once he was outside the conference room. If the mission didn’t include the help of Iron Man why should he pay attention to it? He could read the mission reports later (This really irritated both Rhodey and Carol. And sometimes Rogers and his merry band of followers.). 

 

Once he was at the common floor, he made his way towards the kitchen, where he found that woman, once again, hovering in the air with a confident aura around her. Her eyes were closed, as always, like she was mediating. “Hello, Tony.” She spoke, her tone soft, while he continued to look at her suspiciously. She wasn’t good news. If she was here, the almighty Mother Nature showing her face after a long time, they had a very serious problem on their hands. 

 

“Why are you here?” Tony asked without moving from the place he stood, looking at her peaceful face, his eyebrows furrowed. “Do I need to alert others?” If he needed to do that, they needed to comeback from their respective missions. If this wasn’t an important thing there would be a very big headache named United Nations for him. “Aren’t you going to greet me, Tony?” She asked, finally opening her unnaturally green eyes, her feet touching the floor softly. “I think we can pass the pleasantries.” Tony gritted his teeth, before remembering what his dentist had said about it. Extremis might have healed his whole body, scratch that, rebuilt his whole body, but he needed to be careful. 

 

“You wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t anything catastrophic. What is it this time? Another genocidal maniac or is it the Kree again?” He managed to ask with a blank expression on his face and an indifferent tone. Though the only thing she did was tilt her head slightly to the side, it seemed like she didn’t even hear his question. “How is your arm?” She asked instead, her green eyes looking directly into his, which made Tony shift in place uncomfortably before he gave a brief look at his right arm. He closed and opened his fist slowly, as if to be sure that it was still there.

 

“It’s working fine, thank you.” He said briefly, which made the woman give him a small, genuine smile. “I am glad.” She said before she came closer and hooked her arm into his, before she started to walk towards the elevators he just came from. Tony wasn’t sure if he should stop her going wherever she was going with him; to be honest, he didn’t even know how he could stop her. How could you stop Mother Nature for God’s sake? “What are you doing Cetrion?” He asked cautiously, but the woman didn’t say anything as she pushed the button for his workshop, which made him frown slightly.  

 

“You’ll see my dear.” She said with her usual smile on her face right before the doors of the elevator opened and she stepped out of the elevator with him. Making her way towards the holo table slowly, her face illuminated by the light of the simulations Friday was running. “You are looking at this again.” She asked. “Why?” Tony didn’t say anything. Because he didn’t have any idea why he was looking at the plans of the time machine and various variables again, after five years have past. “I don’t know.” He admitted silently, biting his inner cheek with irritation. Cetrion let out a soft hum, as if she knew something he didn’t after hearing his answer. “You know why?” He asked with a frown on his face, directing his gaze towards her green eyes. Cetrion nodded silently before she started to explain.

 

“When you and your team travelled back in time to retrieve the Infinity Stones to stop Thanos, you caused countless paradoxes in space and time. But this doesn’t mean anything. Time can heal itself but space could not, which creates a conflict between them.” She said with an indifferent tone before turning her gaze towards Tony. “It is going to backlash. There were signs for that since the moment you made this time machine. This universe doesn’t have much time left. Everyone who was on that battlefield is going to be affected from this.” She pointed to the hologram with her head, making Tony gulp down with horror. 

 

He leaned forward to hold on to the holo table to prevent his hands from shaking. They fucked up once again, he fucked up once again and this time it wasn’t just a planet at risk. It was the whole goddamn universe. “But you aren’t.” His head snapped towards the woman, who was looking at him with soft eyes, there were hints of sympathy in them. “Because you held the Infinity Stones and they left an imprint on you Tony. It is a failsafe to protect their wielders against catastrophes like this.” Tony gulped down, and tried to take a deep breath to even his breathing, tried to stop the shaking of his hands.

 

“What’s going to happen to me, if I am not going to…? If I’m not going to die?” He managed to whisper his question without looking at Cetrion. “You are going to be transported to another universe.” She answered him. “It doesn’t matter if your other counterpart is there or not.” She said softly. “I think it is going to be a familiar universe with small differences.” Tony let out a shaky breath. He was going to live after everyone he cared about died. It was the reality that Wanda had placed in his head a decade ago. What an irony. 

 

“Be sure to take these.” He heard Cetrion say right before she placed several housing units for the armor in front of him which made him look up at her face with confusion. “You are going to need them, more than before.” She said before looking up with a grim expression. “It is going to happen soon. Quick!” She said with a panic, before grabbing one of the housing units, planting it on his chest and tapping twice. “May Kronika help you my dear.” She said before the armor completely engulfed him.

 

Tony didn’t even have time to say anything before everything had gone completely white.

 

**ΩΩΩΩ**

 

**_Δ July 18, 2008 Δ_ **

 

_ “Boss! Boss wake up!” _

 

The reason Tony woke up was Friday, who was shouting at him with hints of panic in her voice. He let out a painful groan when he tried to move his head. Every little muscle in his body was aching and he could swear that his brain could burst like a volcano from his ears. Plus he was sweating. Why the hell was he sweating? “I woke up Fri, stop shouting…” He mumbled silently, gulping down the nonexistent saliva to soften his throat, he could swear that the AI took a relaxed breath after hearing his voice. “What happened Friday?” He asked after a few minutes, before opening his eyes only to see the familiar interface of the Iron Man HUD. 

 

Why was he in his suit? He didn’t recall that there was a danger for him to wear his suit. He was alone in the compound while everyone were away on missions. “ _ You don’t remember?” _ Friday asked cautiously which made Tony frown slightly. Did he need to remember? “Do I need to?” He asked with the same caution. “By the way retract the helmet.” He muttered.  _ “I don’t recommend you do that Boss.” _ Friday said, leaving his first question unanswered, though her answer made him frown deeper. “Why not? Is there something dangerous?” He asked. His question went unanswered again, though after a few seconds his helmet retracted back, leaving him alone with the dry, hot wind and with the sun shining strong enough to blind his unprotected eyes.

 

“Friday… What happened?” He asked silently when the helmet engulfed his head once again, protecting his eyes from the murderous sun and the dry air. After a few moments of hesitation, Friday started to explain everything that happened. After she finished speaking Tony let out a shaky breath. Everyone… Everyone was dead. Everyone he knew was fucking dead! Just because of him. Because of him…

 

_ “Boss! Boss, you are safe, there is nothing that could harm you.” _  She continued to speak, to prevent him from hyperventilating and it worked. “Where or when are we Friday?” Tony asked as he gulped down slightly, the heat was starting to get the best of him. _ “We are in the desert of Afghanistan, Boss.” _ Friday answered a few seconds later. “ _ And the date is July 18, 2008.” _ There was a few seconds of silence which made Tony frown slightly.  _ “We are close to the caves that your counterpart is being held.”  _

 

And wasn’t this Tony’s luck?

 

“Let’s save him baby girl.”


	2. Nice to meet you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright here is the link to Future!Tony's armor  
> http://tinypic.com/r/67qfx0/9
> 
> and this is our girl Friday :D  
> http://i65.tinypic.com/2m284ko.jpg

**Chapter 2: Nice to meet you**

 

In his opinion, everything happened too fast for him to even think about the logic to explain what the hell was going on around them. So Tony let it go for now. For now being the key word. Though he now recalls that it started not too long after that earthquake, which shook the  _ whole _ goddamn mountain violently. Even Yinsen looked kind of concerned about it, well everyone in that cave looked concerned and gave wary looks at the ceiling of the cave from what he understood by their speaking and body language. “I suppose this isn’t normal?” He asked for the sake of something to fill the silence of their little cave room other than the clanks of his hammer hitting the metal beneath it. 

 

He hated silence, since he was a little child, which was why he made himself that robot dog in the first place. It was an attempt to fill the silence of that big mansion. It didn’t change when he grew up either, parties and loud music filled the silence for him, later it was the chirpings or beeping of his bots or Jarvis’s steady tone speaking to him about his projects or about the news concerning both him and SI. “No, this isn’t normal.” Yinsen said finally with a hint of frown in his voice, not looking up from the piece of armor he was working on and the silence continued afterwards, much to Tony’s dislike. 

 

They continued to work on their escape plan non-stop, until an explosion made them pause for a few moments, both men gave concerned looks at each other. Maybe it was the military, maybe they finally found him, found them? Maybe they could finally go back home? Tony’s suspicion about the military making an ambush grew after they started to hear bullets firing, hitting something metal and bouncing back inside the cave. Though the lack of lots of footsteps or orders being shouted made him frown deeply, when he looked back at Yinsen, his expression wasn't much different.

 

The obviously shocked screams of the terrorists, who he guessed were now firing their guns carelessly to get rid of whatever was coming after them, was awfully concerning. His suspicion strengthened, when a frantic and scared man opened the metal door, pulled Tony from where he stood as fast as he could and placed his gun to his temple making him gulp down. Though when the man started to speak, which he didn’t understand since it was way too fast, towards the empty space he started to be concerned, forgetting the gun on his temple momentarily. 

 

It was then that his eyes caught something in front of them, the air wavered slightly; Tony could swear that he heard a very faint whirring noise between the man’s panicked words. Though, nothing could have prepared Tony to see this. To see a man appear out of nowhere in front of them with menacing red eyes piercing through his soul. Though after a few seconds, Tony’s brain clicked. It was an armor, a goddamn armor. Like the one he planned to build here… 

 

**_“Let him go.”_ ** Said the person inside the armor with a deep, unrecognizable voice, almost like he was bored of the situation. Though from the scared and stuttering voice of his captor and the increased pressure of the gun on his temple, Tony understood that he didn’t agree with the man inside the armor.  **_“Your choice.”_ ** Said the man in front of him, right before something small appeared behind his left shoulder, hitting his captor between the eyes. 

 

“Stark!” He heard Yinsen’s voice the moment his captor fell to the ground, his gun falling from his hands which made Tony lean down to grab it, before turning his attention towards the armored person who was also looking at him. “I’m fine.” Tony waved Yinsen off, his eyes still on the person in the armor. **_“Yes, he is fine. I advise we get out of here as soon as possible for your safety.”_ ** The armored person said.  **_“This place is going to erupt into flames in a few minutes.”_ **

 

Yinsen gave a stiff nod, though Tony was in conflict about everything related to this man. Something was off about him. Maybe this was why he raised the gun, his finger on the trigger ready to fire; he barely noticed that his hands were shaking as he spoke. “Who the hell are you?” He asked with a serious tone. “Speak quickly if you want us to stay alive.” He added after a few seconds. The armored man slightly tilted his head to the side and let out something close to a sigh before his helmet retracted back. Tony felt the gun fall on the ground, but he didn’t care about that.

 

He was looking at himself.

 

ΩΩΩΩ

 

Tony was kind of paralyzed, well his brain stopped working the moment he saw- he saw his face on that man. That was probably why Tony didn’t even question when Second-Tony grabbed both him and Yinsen in a strong grip and flew away from the exploding terrorist camp. It wasn’t long before they landed somewhere, which he noticed was somewhere close to an air base. Just how fast did that armor fly? They were miles away from the base.

 

**_“I sent a signal to the base on the way here, it won’t be long till they start to look for you both.”_ ** Second-Tony said with the deep electronic voice of the armor.  **_“They can’t know about me.”_ ** He said, his red eyes piercing through both men.  **_“I will see you soon.”_ ** He said as he gave a stiff nod towards Tony before he flew away. 

 

To be honest, when Tony said that he could save himself, he didn't think it would be this literal. 

 

ΩΩΩΩ

 

Lay low they said to him and he was doing exactly that. Well… watching the news while replanning the armor he decided to make back in that cave was counted as laying low, right? Though, he couldn’t give his full attention to it, he always had an ear on the news, listening about the anonymous attacks on known terrorist camps. The attacks were mainly in the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Even though the attacks got caught on cameras, no one saw who was making these bold attacks. 

 

No one knew. The politicians, armies and news channels all around the world were going crazy about it. Though the locals who got saved or freed from those camps weren’t thinking the same thing, they were grateful. They were grateful towards whoever brought them this peace and freedom for the rest of their lives. And Tony was in conflict between feeling the horror or something definitely opposite of it. 

 

_ “Sir?” _ Jarvis’s voice pulled him from his thoughts. Tony made a movement that let the AI know he was listening. “I must inform you there is someone waiting for you in the living room.” Tony stopped his movements, his eyes rising to one of Jarvis’s cameras. Even though he had an idea of who it was, he wanted to be sure of it. “And who might that be?” Tony asked right before he started to make his way towards the stairs, climbing it as fast as he can. “ _ He… resembles you quite a lot, Sir.” _ Okay… This was enough for Tony to be sure who it was.   

 

When he stepped into the living room, Tony found Second-Tony sitting cross legged in front of the floor to ceiling glass wall, watching the ocean beneath it with a blank expression on his face. He seemed visibly tired; there were dark blue circles beneath his sunken eyes. “It's been a long time since I saw this scenery.” His voice seemed also raw, as if he used to scream a lot. Tony nodded his head slightly before clearing his throat. “I know you’re here, you’re not exactly as silent as you think.” Okay, ouch. Though after Tony didn’t utter a word or snark back, Second-Tony got up from the place he sat down with a sigh to face back at Tony. 

 

“You’ve been busy.” Tony said with a questioning gaze, crossing his arms across his chest, right beneath the arc reactor as a small barrier. Second-Tony cocked one of his eyebrows at him, before he looked around the big living room. “Kinda.” He answered with a thin smile on his lips, turning his gaze at him, staring directly in his eyes. Tony stills in place for a moment. His face is terrifying actually. Tony spent years wondering why everyone seemed so intimidated by him, or nervous or worse whenever he directed his gaze at them. 

 

He gets it now, why people call him The Merchant of Death. Without the light shining in his eyes, they're pitch black and utterly blank. It’s a look that you see in a predator’s eyes. Tony lets out a snort after few seconds of eye contact. “Kinda? I don’t think there is anything ‘kinda’ about what you did to those camps.” Second-Tony’s face turns into an emotional turmoil after hearing that, turning his gaze towards the ocean beneath them. “I was destroying the SI weapons they had.” He answered with a mask of blankness, pulling it over his regretful eyes. Tony frowned at his words. “Like the ones the Ten Rings had.” 

 

“What do you mean?”

 

Second-Tony turned his gaze over at him, tilting his head slightly to the side as if he was deciding to tell him or not. “Such naivety…” He heard him whisper under his breath, which deepened his frown. “You didn’t wonder why or how the Ten Rings had SI weapons? I know you did. Because I did too.” He let out a sigh, running his hand over his face before directing his gaze back at the ocean, backing down slightly to sit on the white couch. “Never mind.” He let out a frustrated sigh, his fingers tapping on his thigh repeatedly.  _ He has a nervous tic _ . Tony thought as he watched the man from where he was standing, he was kinda glad that he didn’t lose that little tic. 

 

“You’re taking this well, I’m surprised.” Said Second-Tony after a few minutes of silence, continuing to tap on his thigh. “I’m not, actually.” Tony said before deciding to sit down on the white couch too, trying to sound casual. “I’m freaking out inside.” Tony said before turning his whole body towards his guest. “I don’t know what to think about you, my future self being here doing something I need to do.” He said, making Second-Tony send him an amused eye roll. “That brings me to this question, why are you here?”

 

Second-Tony’s eyes suddenly turned blank, his eyebrows forming a frown after he asked that question. Okay… this smelled like a lengthy story. “I don’t remember much,” Okay, maybe not. “But Friday can tell you.” Wait what? “You can show yourself baby girl.” Said Second-Tony with fondness in his tone, just before a small sphere rose from his watch, much to Tony’s fascination. It stopped right upside of the coffee table a few seconds later, there was a red headed young woman sitting on the coffee table, completely dressed with shades of pink. There was a small smile on her face.

 

_ “Hello, I’m Friday.”  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy hell :O  
> I never thought this would be read this much in asuch a short time, thank you people :D  
> This encourages me to write more for this story :D  
> I am open to suggestion of what could happen or how could be the proper reactions :D


	3. Small confessions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I did forget to mention how the Future!Tony looked. Just imagine Tony's IM3 or AoU look. I will explain how he will look like that after Endgame in the story.

Tony was amazed. This was important because there weren’t many things to amaze him, well there was, but they were very rare. Seeing Friday, Second-Tony’s AI, sitting on the coffee table, her legs over each other with a soft expression on her face… This was the thing that freaking amazed him. There were lots of questions building up in his head about how this hologram worked or why her accent had an Irish tilt to it, but he bit his tongue and tried to focus on the main question. 

 

Why was his future self here in the first place? He thought about that a lot to be honest; so much so that he started to space out on Pepper and Obie, even sometimes Jarvis. This started to annoy both Pepper and Obie, but Tony didn’t really care. This, this was more important. “Hello, I guess?” He managed to speak after a few minutes of looking at Friday’s face, which made the AI chuckle. It was  _ fascinating _ .

 

“You can start to tell him, from what you could record before we were frisked away like bugs.” Second-Tony said with a tone that Tony didn’t understand or even get.  _ “Yes Boss.” _ She told him everything, though like Second-Tony said, only the things she could record before they were thrown here, much to their dislike. After he heard their story and how they ended up in this… in this alternate timeline, Tony felt like he has been hit by a truck. 

 

Granted, it wasn’t that much of a big story (It only sounded straight out of a science-fiction movie, that’s all), but only thinking about the alternate timeline theory being freaking true, made his brain overheat. He hasn’t felt like this since he was at MIT. “Now you know.” Second-Tony said rubbing his eyes harshly. “Believing or not is up to you.”

 

Yeah, Tony kind of guessed that. The thing was he believed him, believed both the AI and his second counterpart. To be honest, even though he had some suspicions, it was hard to not believe them. Yes, the story Friday told him was logical but there were lots of plot holes in their story. Why would there be a backlash in the first place? Why did it only send his future self to an alternate reality and not the others? What made him so special to be saved from a catastrophe like that? “I believe you, but you need to accept that there are lots of plot holes in your story.” He said, before narrowing his eyes slightly. 

 

“What made you so special to be saved from this so called backlash?” And ladies and gentlemen, after hearing this question he could visibly see that Second-Tony tensed, his expression tightened and a shadow of guilt and various negative emotions, placed itself on his face. Okay, it seemed like he hit a pretty sour nerve there and he didn’t know if he should feel guilty by asking this or not. He decided not to. No one said he was merciful to himself. Though, he started to feel a small bit of guilt when Friday got up from the coffee table and kneeled in front of his counterpart with a soft, calming tone.  

 

_ “Boss, breathe. You are safe. You are in the Malibu Mansion; the date is July 29, 2008. We’ve been here for 11 days, 22 hours and 8.27 minutes. You are alive. I am alive, brother is alive, and you are not alone.” _

 

His counterpart seemed to calm down a little bit after hearing this. At least his face seemed to go back to its blank expressionless state, though his eyes were saying another story. There was a dangerous hurricane in those dark eyes. “I didn’t want to be saved.” He heard him whisper and let out a shaky breath; he tapped on his wrist watch,  which he assumed called back Friday’s small sphere, after seeing Friday’s hologram disappear and the small sphere float back to melt inside the watch. 

 

“There are lots of people I would choose to be saved instead of myself. But…” He took a small breath. “But I won’t wish this… this on my worst enemy, let alone the people I love dearly.” He whispered once again, closing his eyes tightly before he covered his face with shaking hands, like a shield to protect himself. At that very moment, Tony saw how the man facing him was worn out from the years he faced. There was only a wounded man who was hiding behind the masks he put on display to protect him like a shield from the people around him. Even from himself. It was like looking at a mirror.

 

Tony didn’t speak a word after hearing this answer. To be honest, he wasn’t sure what to say, even though there were lots of questions swimming inside his head. He was never good dealing with emotions, even though he was living through said emotions. Well that was literal now. He opened his mouth to say something to his counterpart but it closed immediately. Instead he cleared his throat to break the intense air. “Ugh…  There’s a guest room on the upper floor.” He said awkwardly, making Second-Tony chuckle slightly, surprisingly, before he pulled his hands away from his face. 

 

There was a knowing and understanding look in his dark eyes (Which definitely didn’t make him uncomfortable or feel kinda weird. Nope, nada, nyet.). He just gave a nod, got up from the couch and made his way towards the spiral stairs. Once he disappeared from his sight, Tony gave out a loud stressful sigh and leaned back on the couch. “J? What’s he doing?” He asked a few minutes later.  _ “He is lying in the bed, Sir.” _ Jarvis said a few seconds later in his neutral tone, though from the years of experience, Tony knew the inexistent questions in his tone. “Tell me whenever he wakes up.” He said before getting up from the couch and making his way down the stairs, back to his workshop.

 

He had a suit to work on.

 

ΩΩΩΩ

 

The thing that woke Tony up from his awkwardly positioned sleep was the smell of coffee, which was coming from upstairs. “Jarvis?” Tony asked momentarily forgetting everything. He knew that Jarvis always made coffee for him in the mornings, but it was always the standard, black espresso coffee. This coffee smelled very different from the ones Jarvis made.  _ “Yes Sir?” _  Jarvis answered immediately, his tone a bit more cheerful than his normal neutral tone, which made Tony frown as he yawned and stretched his back and arms. 

 

“Who is making coffee? It smells different from yours.” He got up from the chair, cracked his stiffened back, and made his way towards the stairs.  _ “Sir Anthony made the new coffee, Sir.” _ Tony’s frown deepened as he climbed the stairs. “Anthony?” He asked as he stepped inside the living room before making his way towards the kitchen, where Anthony and Friday were. Both of them were sitting around the small kitchen table that Pepper choose last year when the other one got destroyed after… after one of his one night stands.

 

It was wild.

 

Anyway.

 

Friday’s sphere was floating in the air while the AI was scanning through some crypted files. “I wanted him to call me that, to not cause any confusion.” Anthony said without looking from whatever he was drawing on the hologram. “Coffee is in the pot for you.” He said pausing for a few seconds, narrowing his eyes before adding another thing on the hologram. Tony only gave a confused nod, still sleepy as he grabbed a mug from the cupboard and pulled the said pot from the coffee machine. It was weird to wake up and see that someone was already awake and prepared coffee the way he liked. 

 

Pepper or Jarvis didn’t count, or one of his one night stands who cared enough to make a pot of coffee and leave after that. Those ones were weird enough, but seeing his freaking future self prepare the said coffee was bizarre. What did his life become? “What are you drinking, it smells different?” Tony finally asked after taking his first sip,  which made him shake his sleepiness a little bit and focus on the open hologram that Anthony was working on. “Rose flavored Turkish coffee.” He answered absentmindedly as he added more equations on his work. “Found it in the cupboard. I think Pepper had bought it.” 

 

Tony narrowed his eyes on the hologram as he came closer towards the kitchen table. There was something familiar on to it. “Holy hell…” He whispered, his eyes grew big with bewilderment. “Please tell me you didn’t…” He heard Friday giggle from her place, as he placed his mug on the table gently, his eyes still on the hologram. “Well…” Anthony stretched the word. “I won’t if that’s what you want.” Tony ignored both Friday and Anthony, as he focused on the hologram where the formula of a new element stood in front of him. 

 

A new fucking element. What the hell? He knew he was a freaking genius, but this was taking the meaning of the word to a new level. “How in the hell did you manage to find a new element?” Tony asked his future self, who was drinking coffee casually like the thing he did was normal, after a few minutes of shocked silence. Anthony shrugged and downed his coffee, sighing as he got up to wash the coffee cup he was drinking out of. “Well, dear ole dad helped from the grave.” Anthony said with an odd tone. “Though dying from poisoning and the threats of being tasered kinda helped to find it more quickly.”  

 

Tony frowned at his explanation. What did Howard have to do with this at all? Though his brain suddenly stopped at the second part of his future selves explanation. “What do you mean dying? Who the hell threatened to taser you?” He asked with a surprised tone, turning his gaze to look at his future self, who was leaning back on the counter with the same blank expression on his face since last night. “Forget the taser, it won’t happen to you. That’s why I’m here.” He shrugged. “Though I can say something about dying.” He said before pointing the arc reactor in his chest with his chin. 

 

“Palladium is not very friendly to the human body. I found that out the hard way.” Anthony sighed before he rubbed his own chest slowly, which gave Tony a very bad feeling. He knew that palladium was harmful and he was already looking at other elements to replace it, but hearing his future self mentioning it like that, blossomed a very bad feeling inside his chest. “This new element though, it is perfect for the arc reactor. I guess we need to thank Howard for this huh?” His future self muttered the last part which made him frown slightly. 

 

“Though before that we need to synthesize it first...” Anthony said with a frown on his face as he started to mutter to himself, spacing out slightly. “Sir?” Jarvis said softly but Tony didn’t show any sign that he was listening to him, instead his eyes were focused on his future self. He was going to admit, he looked good despite the years, and even though Tony didn’t know how old he was, it was a fact. “Sir? I need to-”

 

His sentence cut with two different gasps and a thud. Pepper and Rhodey was looking at them with big, shocked and surprised eyes. Which made him freeze in his place. He could see that Anthony was in the same situation. “Oh shit…” He heard Anthony whisper as his stance changed while looking at Pepper and Rhodey. Tony tried to give a small smile at them.

 

“I can explain?”


	4. Small mercies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oh god... THANK YOU FOR THE LOVE YOU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE SHOWED TO THIS STORY!  
> I am so happy to see this :D
> 
> So here is the armor Anthony shows :3  
> https://ibb.co/s5QS4d4
> 
> Please tell me if there are things you want to see in the next chapters! I would love to see your ideas :D

To be honest, to say that Pepper and Rhodey were freaked out wouldn't be enough. The way they looked at Anthony, who was looking at them like he saw ghosts, made Tony’s insides turn out with a bad feeling. It didn’t help that no one was speaking either, no one looked willing to break the silence. So, he took a deep breath and opened his mouth to speak but surprisingly Pepper beat him to it. “Who is he?” She asked with a small voice, her eyes not leaving Anthony for even a second as he could vanish into thin air. Not that he didn’t do it when he saved him, but he had his suit on that time. Now though, he was as unprotected as him. 

 

“His name is Anthony.” Tony said with a forced smile as he saw Rhodey gave him an incredulous look, so he cleared his throat. “He is me. From my future, well was from my future.” He corrected himself when he remembered that Anthony’s world (and Tony’s potential future) had been destroyed due to ‘The Backlash’, which the older man wasn’t that excited to tell him what caused it in the first place. At least not for now. “What?” said Rhodey as his frown deepened, his eyes going between Tony and Anthony unlike Pepper, who was still looking at Anthony before turning her attention back to Tony after hearing what he said.

 

Oh boy… This was going to fun to explain. He, himself didn’t know much about who Anthony generally was, or how he came here from the future. Well…he needed to convince them, convince his friends enough to at least not give Anthony that unexplainable, weird look that people gave things they didn’t understand. “You heard what I said Platypus.” Tony said, before he grabbed his semi cold coffee from the table he placed it on a few minutes earlier and took a sip from it. 

 

“He is me.” Tony said as he took a sip from his coffee and after that he heard a very soft ‘She’s alive...’ coming from Anthony, which made him frown slightly. What the hell? “We can see that he only looks like you Tony. How can we know that he isn’t some look alike?” Pepper said as she slowly regained her posture and tried to erase that shocked expression from her face, Rhodey wasn’t that different from her either. Though, he was more in a defensive stance, ready to strike the moment Anthony did anything suspicious. Well, what a joy. 

 

“I know he isn’t a look alike. Jarvis also knows that he isn’t a look alike, because he keeps a database about all my look alikes who go to small charity events. Isn’t that right J?” Tony asked with a knowing smile as he took a sip from his now very cold coffee, his face scrunching slightly with the bitter taste. “Oh this is disgusting.” He muttered to himself right before Jarvis answered his friends. “Yes Miss Potts, Sir is right. Sir Anthony doesn’t have any match through my look alike database.” Tony could see that the defensive tone surprised not only him, but everyone who was in the kitchen. 

 

When did Jarvis become this protective of someone in less than 24 hours? “You heard him Pep, you too Rhodey.” Tony shrugged once more, though both of his friends still seemed suspicious and they had every right to feel that way. Hell, Tony himself still felt suspicious around the older man. However, he didn’t think the man would kill him in his sleep either. “You don’t need to give him those suspicious looks-” He started to say, but before he could finish his sentence Anthony stopped him.

 

“They have every right to feel like this.” He said with a blank tone, masking the sadness perfectly. “Don’t push them, Tony.” He muttered, just before directing his eyes towards him with a pleading look, which threw Tony off from his current train of thought for a long moment. In no way, did Tony ever beg anyone, not even in hard situations he found himself in; like when the Ten Rings had him waterboarded everyday, for a month, until he agreed to build them Jericho. Now, after seeing the older give him that pleading look, Tony was starting to get how difficult this situation was for Anthony. 

 

He knew that this man standing in front of him suffered more than him and refused to beg, in any way, but this… this was his breaking point. He can clearly see that. “Alright, let’s go to the sitting area and we’ll explain further who he is? Okay?” Tony asked carefully, even though he was sure that he couldn’t explain most of the story without sounding crazy. Pepper and Rhodey gave each other a look before hesitantly nodding and slowly making their way towards the sitting area. 

 

“Don’t give them the suspicion talk while you’re still feeling suspicious around me,” Anthony said with a tired sigh right before turning his head to look at the sitting area, where his friends sat down hesitantly, with some sort of longing in his eyes. “It’s really obvious.” Alright, ouch, that kinda hurt. “Yeah, got it Mr. Mysterio.” Tony rolled his eyes and missed the narrowed frown on Anthony’s face. “Anyway, let’s go before they think that you killed me.” Anthony only gave a small nod before they made their way towards the sitting area. 

 

Saying the air was tense would be a joke, when they sat down on the couch, Tony closer to Pepper and Rhodey for their comfort and Anthony far away from them for their comfort. It was obvious that he wanted to sit closer to them. It didn’t matter how much he tried to hide this, anybody who had experience could see it from his eyes. Rhodey straightened his posture, his face turning into a blank plate as he used his military training. “Start explaining. Now.” 

 

They did. This time, without Friday’s help. Though Tony himself did the talking while Anthony cut into his sentences from time to time to correct what he said, other than that he was completely silent. His eyes were mostly on the television which was showing a news channel, though he wasn’t sure if he was actually watching or not. He was aware that both Pepper and Rhodey were giving him tense side glances. After telling the short story of how Anthony came here, they fell into silence. Tony could see the wheels turning inside their heads, trying to make sense of this bizarre story. He knows that it’s going to take awhile for them to get through everything they were told. He didn’t mind. He himself was still trying to sort through the story after they told him yesterday. So, he was on the same page as them. 

 

“Why?” Rhodey asked directly at Anthony, who turned his head calmly towards him with one of his eyebrows raised. “To some extent I understand why you’re here, but why exactly are you here, with us?” Rhodey asked again, Anthony straightened his posture and took a deep breath. “I want to change the course of the timeline and doing this begins with him.” He pointed Tony with his head, his eyes still on Rhodey. “I know it. I lived through it and it wasn’t pleasant in the slightest.” He said, gulping down and licking his lower lip before speaking again. “If I can help, why should I sit down and watch him and people around him suffer from the things that are going to happen?”

 

Okay… Tony didn’t think of that part of him being here. Yes, he could’ve watched everything from the sidelines, and live like a normal person… But he didn’t do that, right? He was here; he had saved him from that damned cave alongside Yinsen and had blown up the stolen SI weapons in those terrorist camps. He changed everything already. “Wait.” Pepper said, with a slight frown on her face, pulling everyone’s focus to herself. “If you know everything, does that mean you knew where Tony was being held captive?” Tony saw that Anthony gave a hesitant nod at her question. 

 

“Rhodey, didn’t you tell me that the soldiers on the airbase found them waiting to be picked up?” Rhodey gave a nod as a frown started to form on his face, focusing his attention back on Anthony. Tony frowned also, how in the hell did Pepper get to this conclusion? “That means they knew they were going to be picked up. So that means someone told them, right?” Her eyes zeroed on Anthony, who had a very soft smile on his lips. “You saved them, didn’t you.” Pepper said with a soft tone, her eyes losing some of the harshness to them. Anthony gave another nod. With that, Pepper took a deep breath and leaned back on the couch. 

 

“I knew something wasn’t right with how they found you and that doctor waiting like that…” Rhodey muttered. “I mean the camp you were held in was in flames and no one was alive when we checked it.” He said and narrowed his eyes, as if he got into a conclusion. “How did you manage to do that?”

 

Tony saw the smile on the older’s face fade away the moment he heard that last question. It was clear that he wasn’t sure how to reveal the armor to them and seemed like he was torn between telling or not too. “Show them.” Tony poked his shoulder with a playful smile to relax the man. “I’m sure they will like it.” Both Rhodey and Pepper gave him a questioning look, while Anthony sent him something akin to a ‘I will kill you in your sleep’ look. 

 

“We will like what?” Pepper asked with a confused tone, Rhodey wasn’t different either. “My armor.” Anthony said turning his head towards the ocean beneath them, before taking a breath as he got up from the single seat. “Alright here goes nothing…” Tony heard him whisper and watched him tap on the reactor in the middle of his chest twice; it took only a few seconds for the armor to engulf his whole body. Whatever deities were up there, Tony thanked them for sending Anthony and this beautiful piece of art. 

 

Tony could definitely spend hours looking at this beauty, before he take it apart and examine it, and after he would recreate it as beautiful as it was. It was a different armor from what Tony remembered though. This one was completely black, other than the eyes and glow coming from the arc reactor, it had no color. This… this was way more intimidating than the one Tony remembered seeing in the cave.

 

“Jesus Christ…” Tony heard his friend whisper under his breath, though Pepper was silent. “This is insane.” Rhodey muttered and when Tony turned his gaze towards him from the armor, he saw the engineer inside his friend woke up and started to dissect the armor visually. It was funny really. People usually forget that Rhodey was in MIT with him too. “Pepper?” Tony asked as he turned his gaze towards her when Anthony tapped the reactor once again to call the armor back inside the reactor. 

 

“What do you think?” Pepper didn’t say anything. She just kept looking at Anthony with a calculating gaze and Anthony responded with the same look. “You’re the one behind the attacks, aren’t you?” She asked, but her tone was more like stating a fact. Tony froze on his place. This slightly scared him, to be honest. How she was able to guess who was behind the attacks only by listening and observing a person she only knew for two hours. 

 

Tony knew she was smart, unless she wouldn’t be working in SI in the first place, but this was something different. Though, Anthony seemed to know this already, how smart she was and what kind of jewels her brain was hiding. “Yes.” He replied as he sat back on the single seat once again, with a tiny smile on his face. “Wait what?” Rhodey asked with a frown, dumbfounded with the sudden information he heard while Tony kept looking between Anthony and Pepper.

 

“I’m the one who keeps destroying those terrorist camps, along with the guerillas inside.” Anthony turned his gaze towards Rhodey with a blank face, whose expression was also turning to not so pleasant one. Honestly, Tony wouldn’t blame him if he started to shout at his older self, who was giving that annoyingly blank expression. Though, Tony could see how his jaw was clenched with clear anticipation of waiting to be shouted at… and it was quite concerning. 

 

He can admit it, he was always prepared to get into a shouting match with everyone and he meant everyone; because he grew up in a household where shouting was a constant thing. However, he never got too tense when he was speaking with Rhodey. Never. It seemed like his destroyed potential future was far worse than he ever anticipated. “Tony.” Rhodey addressed him with his military tone, his gaze still on Anthony. “Did you know that?” 

 

“I guessed that was him.” Tony answered his friend, looking directly at his stern face. It was weird to speak with his friend like this to be honest, like he was in an interrogation. Rhodey momentarily turned his gaze towards him. “Why didn’t you say anything then?” Rhodey asked, his voice wavering slightly to an angry tone. “Whole world is going crazy about these attacks! Do you know what they’re doing now? Preparing some protocols against whoever was doing these attacks, if he decides to attack on the military too and not only to those terrorist camps!” Rhodey said heatedly through his teeth. 

 

Tony clenched his jaw, like his older self did just moments ago. He could see where he was coming from, he really did. But there were things that he wasn’t taking into consideration. “Would you have believed me?” He asked with a calm tone as he raised one eyebrow and continued to speak when Rhodey hadn't said anything. “Let me tell you, you wouldn’t. Everyone is already in agreement that I have severe PTSD from whatever happened in that cave, with my announcement of shutting down the weapons manufacturing only adding fuel to it. If I uttered a word about him being real and the one who was attacking those camps, I would already be in a psychiatric ward.” Tony said as he pointed to Anthony with his hand. “And you know this pretty well, Rhodes.” He said, using his surname, challenging him to say anything on these pure facts.

 

Though when Rhodey opened his mouth to say something, Pepper stopped them with an angry tone. “Enough!” She said with her no nonsense voice, shutting both of their mouths. “This isn’t a battleground or a challenge. This isn’t a normal situation, so we can’t expect everything to be normal either.” She turned her focus to Anthony, who hasn’t said anything since both Tony and Rhodey started their small shouting match and was looking incredibly tense. More than before. It was clear that he didn’t really fancy being the reason of a shouting match. 

 

“I am sure Anthony has a pretty good reason to destroy those camps.” She said with one of her eyebrows raised. Anthony closed his eyes momentarily before looking inside her eyes, giving a brief nod. “SI weapons.” He said his expression tense. “Terrorist have countless SI weapons, even the ones that just get out from the production line.” Tony turned his head towards him with a frown on his face, remembering how the older man said the same thing last night, accusing him with naivety. 

 

“I’m destroying them. None of those attacks are random.” He said finally, turning his head towards the ocean outside the window, refusing to look at them or to give them time to think about the bomb he left on their laps. Tony wasn’t sure which. Either way it didn’t matter. 

 

Tony didn’t know what to say or how to act after hearing this information. His weapons were sold to terrorists. People who were viler than the dirt under his shoes. It… Oh god… It was his weapons that killed all of those soldiers and innocent people all around the world. All of those small kids, men and women… “Tony? Tony!” He heard someone say his name but it was too thick, like it was coming from under water. “Tony! You are safe! Calm down!” Pepper? It was her voice. 

 

Though after a few seconds, he felt someone hold his hands between theirs and it wasn’t feminine. “Tony.” Said whoever was holding his hands, drawing calming circles over his knuckles. “Look at me.” And Tony did. He glanced up into familiar dark ones, looking at him. “Breath with me.” And he did, he imitated his movements and after a few minutes which seemed like hours, he was returning to his normal state, still looking inside those dark orbs. “Are you okay?” The person that he managed to identify as Anthony asked and which he answered with a brief nod. 

 

After that, Anthony pulled his hands from his, gave a small pat on the knees, and went to sit down on the single seat once again. No one spoke for a few awkward moments. “Okay. Let’s avoid talking about that for awhile.” Anthony said and everyone nodded.

 

Tony loved such small mercies. If it wouldn’t be awkward as hell, he could’ve kissed Anthony on the spot. “I understand why you’re doing it.” Pepper said her voice soft. “We all do,” She said casting a small glance to Rhodey who didn’t say anything. “But you can’t keep doing this Anthony. You can’t go mission to mission, you’ll kill yourself.” With that another nostalgic gaze came in his older self’s eyes. This was the second he noticed since they accidentally got caught up by Pepper and Rhodey, and both of them were directed towards Pepper. 

 

“Listen, I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it, even though not doing it would be beneficial for your own health, doing this without any break will wear you down.” She gave a sigh. “And I hate to say this but the press will catch you sooner or later while doing anything and there will be an uproar. Everyone will ask who you are. There is no escape from this.” Tony hated to admit… But Pepper was right. Press would catch him sooner or later. All of them knew that and from the sour expression on Anthony’s face he knew it as well. After all, something concerning Tony Stark sooner or later occurs to the public. 

 

“Yeah… I know.” Anthony said with a sigh. “We need a cover story for when this happens.” Rhodey said, seemingly leaving his slight anger behind. Tony pursed his lips as he started to think of something, frowning slightly in the process. They couldn’t say that he was a look alike or body double, they looked far too similar for those two options. Though…Speaking of similarity... “Long lost twin brother.” Tony said with a proud smile on his face, drawing everyone’s attention on himself. 

 

“I don’t think that’s a good idea Tony.” Rhodey said warily. “Me neither.” Pepper said after Rhodey, and Anthony gave a negative sign that he didn’t agree with it either. “Well, okay than, do tell if you have a better one.” Tony challenged with a raised eyebrow as he crossed his arms across his chest. They looked at each other warily before giving a defeated sigh. “That’s what I thought.” Tony said with a proud smile on his face. 

 

“Okay, if we’re going to go with this plan, we need to prepare everything. First of all we need a background story. Then ID, passport, social security number etc.” Pepper said and they nodded and continued to plan it. Though after half an hour, Tony noticed that Anthony hadn’t said a word or even make any movement to confirm or deny any of their plans about his life. “Hey, old man, what do you think…? Oh.” Tony stopped, drawing his friend’s attention as well, as he saw his older self asleep in an awkward position on the single seat.

 

“He seems exhausted.” He heard Pepper say and he couldn’t agree more to be honest. Well, saying he was exhausted wasn’t even enough. The man was worn out; even when he was awake Tony couldn’t get rid of the thought of him dropping dead on the spot. “Yeah.” Tony said shortly. “Though… I swear he went to sleep yesterday. Jarvis said he did.” He turned his gaze towards one of Jarvis’s cameras. 

 

“Jarvis, he slept yesterday, right?” He asked. “He did not sleep Sir.” Jarvis answered. “He didn’t want us to tell you that, though.” The AI said with a wary tone. “Us?” Rhodey turned his eyes towards his him. “Ugh… Friday. His AI.” Tony said. “She is pretty lovely.” He added and frowned. “She actually looks like you Pep.” Tony muttered. “Why didn’t he sleep though? Different bed problem?” He asked, trying to lighten the mood a little bit. Though he wasn’t prepared when Friday suddenly appeared in front of them, sitting on the coffee table with her legs crossed.

 

_ “No. Night terrors.” _


	5. Reveals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The description of the photo is inspired by this :D  
> The artist is @kammi.lu on instagram! Go and love her fanarts :D
> 
> https://imguh.com/image/JfQBv
> 
> If you have questions or requests about how the story is going this is my instagram @philosophical_army

Tony was in conflict. He really was because he didn't know what to say or act with that information Friday dumped on them. Night terrors. He knew what it was, he had them himself but it was never on the level of disturbing his sleep on a whole night basis. Maybe it was because he didn't have any life death situation till Afghanistan. He had a stressful life maybe, but not that. Never that. "What do you mean with night terrors?" Pepper asked who surprisingly wasn't that surprised by Friday's sudden appearance. 

 

Tony could hear the 'what did he live through to have them' in her voice. Her face was concerned, when he looked at Rhodey, he was the same. Which made Tony take a deep relaxed breath, well metaphorically, because he was sure that they were going to a little bit…? He didn't really know the word at the moment. Friday though, didn't seem too fazed by the lack of surprise, instead she seemed to tilt her head to the side and think what she was going to say.

 

_ "I can't say he had pleasant years, not at all. Well…" _ She stopped for a while, hesitation in her tone. " _ It was mild till I came online, to be honest… I didn't come online in a peaceful environment like Jarvis did. I… I had born into war and violence." _ Okay that… That was kinda confusing. War and violence? When his life did come into that point?  _ "After I become online, it got worse, well everything got worse. Even the good days were strained. But it worse than before since we came here. He doesn't even listen to me anymore when I advised him to sleep or eat." _ The AI said with a side glance at the said man, who was asleep in an awkward position on the single seat.

 

Tony saw that Pepper's eyes turn to the man hesitantly, her expression concerned. He could definitely see the gears of pieces turning in her head, trying to find something to say or get into conclusion. Rhodey on the other hand was frowning, his eyes showing that he was dissecting the information he just gained. Tony on the other hand was only wondering. 

 

This man was him. His possible future. He could live the future he lived through, lose things he lost and experience every horror he experienced and became him. Tony didn't want that. No. He didn't want to become this man. He didn't want to be 24/7 on guard for everything. Have his masks even with his friends. It was a disturbing taught for him to be honest. "Tony came back 12 days ago." Rhodey said suddenly towards Friday, pulling him from his thoughts. He had a frown on his face. 

 

"I hate to think but where did he slept or did he sleep at all? Or eat? Because he doesn't seem like very healthy to me. And I don't want to assume anything anymore, so can you answer these simple questions?" He asked making Friday focus on him, who gave him a small smile, like he asked a question that she wanted them to ask. " _ He slept on the air, inside the suit while I took control of it. Other than that no, he didn't. We planned how we could destroy those camps instead of him going to sleep. Eating… No. He didn't eat other than a few protein bars or didn't drink anything other than a few liters of water." _ She answered, her smile on her lips, as she turned her head towards her creator, leaving them to think.

 

At first, Tony gulped down uncomfortably, than he absorbed the new info that Friday dumped on them. Tony didn't slept that much or eat but he was busy, it wasn't intentional. If he wasn't busy with updating his bots and Jarvis or drawing some new project, he ate like a pig, he wouldn't lie. It was even better whenever Rhodey's mother came here to visit them and made her famous walnut pie or roast beef, he could gain a few pounds just eating from them. Seeing his future self’s situation, a shiver ran through his spine. 

 

He could see similar expressions on his friends face too. Especially Rhodey was surprised. "He seems too thin to be honest…" Rhodey muttered. Pepper was silent still looking at Friday with weird eyes. "You are right. He is too thin." Pepper said before speaking again. "Though… Isn't there a way to make him eat or sleep?" She asked thoughtfully. Friday's expression though, turned grim, making Tony wince slightly, because he had a feeling that he wasn't going to like the answer she was going to give.

 

_ "There was… _ " The AI said giving another side glance to her creator.  _ "But I don't think it'll work at all… Though, I can tell you what it is. Please don't shout. I don't want him to wake up." _ Okay. Tony was good with no shouting.  _ "Protocol Iron Fam activated." _ Friday said which made everyone look at each other awkwardly, though they got distracted quickly with a picture appearing in front of them. Tony heard Pepper gasp and saw Rhodey's eyes go big, though he was too busy to give a reaction. 

 

There he stood in the middle of the picture wearing a hot rod red and gold armor with Rhodey and Pepper wearing their own and standing either side of his, two boys standing on their sides, one wearing a suit similar to his and one wearing something spider themed suit while he had a little girl in his arms. Everyone was smiling. Everyone. They seemed happy. "Iron Fam…" Tony muttered quietly, his eyes scanning the picture over and over again. _ "This was his family." _ Friday said without an expression on her face. 

 

_ "Listing from right to left. Harley Keener, Iron Lad. James Rhodes, War Machine/Iron Patriot. Anthony Stark, Iron Man. Virginia… Potts, Rescue. Peter Parker, Spider-Man, second heir for Stark International." _ Friday said her eyes landing on the little girl that she didn't list.  _ "And her name is Morgan Helena Stark. First heir for Stark International. Daughter of Anthony Stark. Born in January 22, 2019." _

 

Tony froze with last information. How couldn't he? How couldn't he froze with that information while he thought he would be a shitty father because how fucked up he was? How he thought he would fuck up a child like Howard fucked him up? How scared he was to even go near a child with the fear of corrupting them… But here he was, looking at a picture of a small girl, his daughter hugging him with the biggest smile on her face. Like hugging him was the biggest gift that she got. 

 

He wasn't a bad father… No. He didn't seemed to be because there was two other young man, they were probably little child's at this time, standing near them with small smirks on their face. Hell, he seemed like he loved enough that Spider-Ling to make an heir for the company. How was that possible?  _ "She was the only thing kept him moving forward. His only motivation. Now that she is gone… I- I don't know what could motivate him anymore." _ Friday admitted with a small voice, making her seem young which the thing was pulled Tony out from his mind space.  **Gone.** She was gone. The only thing that kept this man on his foot was gone. Turned into nothingness with the rest of his universe.

 

She was  **gone.**

 

That… That could explain most of the Anthony's behavior. Why he kept spacing out time to time, why he was endangering his life for the things that Tony needed to do and especially why he was helping him. It wasn't that obvious to be honest, not at all. You needed little clues to tie into the theory. So that was what he did. Anthony didn't want him to have the same future as himself. 

 

"I see…" He heard Pepper whispers, making him turn his head to look at his friends. Both of them seemed sad, even Rhodey didn't seem like to have his anger anymore. But Pepper… She had that sadness in her eyes which was mixed with affection and protectiveness. Tony never saw that her showing that kind of emotion, not at all. Not in the 16 years of knowing her. She was always professional, sometimes playful (Which started that Mister and Miss thing in the first place) when they were not the boss and assistant, just friends, watching movies. But never affection or protectiveness, not directed at him at least. 

 

"I think… We can find something to motivate him." She said with a small smile, directed at Friday, who was looking at her too. "Yeah." Rhodey said which surprised Tony. "We can find something to motivate him. We don't want a friend to be in this state." Even though Tony was surprised he gave a nod alongside Pepper. "Yes." Tony said, his lips curling upwards for a little, encouraging smile. "We don't want a friend to be in this state."

 

ΩΩΩΩ

 

Tony was down in workshop, working on designing a suit for himself when Jarvis told him that Anthony was awake at the bed in the guest room that he and Rhodey laid him carefully, looking around confusedly, probably trying to figure out how he came here. Oh Tony could definitely relate with him. It was something he got used to when he was a teenager; well probably he was used to it too after all those years. It was probably a long time ago for him, considering his age. 

 

Well… How old he was really? He didn't ask it. Would it be rude to ask now? Though he had suspicions that he was over fifty years old. Because Friday said that his daughter had born in 2019, and in the photo she showed them the little girl was five or six years old. 55 or 56, at the most. But… He didn't looked like 50 something years old, he looked way younger. Way way younger, almost looked like him, which was pretty weird in his opinion.

 

"Sir, Miss Potts is requesting your presence in kitchen." Jarvis said, pulling him out of his thoughts to reality once again. After he saved the progress of the suit he was working on and closed it, he made his way towards the stairs, drumming his fingers on the arc reactor slowly. When he arrived to the kitchen both Rhodey and Pepper were preparing something to eat. They were cooking. Honest to what deity was out there, they were cooking. "Did something fall on your heads?" He couldn't stop himself as he continued to watch them with fascination. 

 

A small chuckle came from Pepper, who was in front of the oven checking something that smelled like heaven. "No. I thought cooking would be the best to get something down from our guest’s throat." She answered before closing its lid. "Friday said he loved eating home cooked things." Rhodey quipped as he momentarily stopped chopping onions. "So we said, what the hell, let's cook." He shrugged.

 

Okay… Tony didn't know what to say to this. He was completely surprised, at how they were wrapped around the older’s finger, and the man didn't even do anything for that. He was damn asleep. "So… Jarvis said that he woke up?" He turned his head towards the entrance, and when he didn't saw he looked back at the others. "Yeah. I think he is trying to get rid of the confusion of waking up somewhere he didn't fall asleep." Rhodey shrugged and put the onions inside the small pan before pouring some oil in it. 

 

"Though, I should admit that I am kinda freaked out. Seeing another person sharing the same face and experiences as you, it is weird Tones." He said as he opened the stove. "Though, come here, look over this. I need to chop tomatoes." Rhodey said and pointed Tony the pan, which he made his way, rolled his sleeves up and mix the onions slowly.

 

"What are you two doing by the way?" Tony asked without looking at his friends. "Spaghetti with tomato sauce and salad." Pepper said cheerfully. "Salad and spaghetti is done, only the sauce for lasagna left." She said and turned her head towards the entrance. "Oh, nice to see you awake Mr Carbonell." She said with a nice smile which made Tony turn his head slowly towards the entrance only to see Anthony, who still looked sleepy despite sleeping for 9 hours. 

 

"Carbonell?" He asked confusedly as he blinked rapidly for a few seconds. He run his hand through his already messed hair and focused on Pepper again. "I guess it is for the long lost twin story?" He raised one eyebrow with the question. "Yep." Tony answered for Pepper, before he turned to stir the onions and chopped tomatoes that Rhodey put. "It'll be more believable if your surname isn't Stark. I know people will look for plot holes, but we can work on it." He said and watched Rhodey put in black pepper and salt in the sauce. "I think this is done." He said with a smile right after he turned towards Anthony, who was now seated on the bar stools of the island counter, looking at them with curious eyes.

 

"Anyway." Pepper said while she put the salad in four small bowls alongside forks and knives. "I hope you slept well." She said kindly before sitting down on one of the bar stools herself. Tony saw him gave a dismissive nod and watch Rhodey put spaghetti on the plates, putting them one by one in front of the others. Just before pouring the tomato sauce they made on it. 

 

"Alright, eat well people." Tony said as he sat down near Rhodey. He could see that Anthony poking the spaghetti with his fork a few times before pulling a piece and eating it. "This is delicious, thank you whoever cooked it." Anthony said with a small smile on his face, though it was forced, Tony could say it. Even though the other eats the salad and lasagna, Tony could see that he was forcing himself to eat them. "Don't force yourself to eat." Tony said suddenly, earning surprised glances from everyone sitting around the island counter. It was awkward for a few seconds, though Anthony left the fork inside the lasagna plate with a sigh and gave a grateful nod towards him. 

 

"I'm sorry- I can't really eat much. But thank you for this." He said, this time with a genuine smile on his lips. Pepper and Rhodey gave small nods and continued to eat, while Tony himself pushed the lasagna plate a few inches away from himself. "So. Our chat was cut down when you fell asleep." Tony said which earned him a kick from Rhodey. He ignored them. "So, if you don't mind, can we continue to do that?" He asked with a smile on his face. He could feel Pepper's unamused and irritated look directed at him.

 

"Yeah, of course we can." Anthony said, as if he appreciated the topic change. "Me and Friday established a timeline, because there is things that can't and won't change, even with my presence." He said before taking out something from his jeans pocket. It was a rectangular arc reactor, like the one planted on the center of his chest. 

Though it happened to be that this one was be able to project a hologram on the surface of the island counter. Tony could see years and people linked through them. Most of it wasn't even familiar to him, well, other than the creation of Captain America back 1942. 

 

"Alright. Everything started in 1942 with Hydra (more like the Red Skull) playing with the Tesseract, an infinite energy source, though later we learned that it contained something called the Space Stone, a trouble on the ass." He said and Tony saw him rub his right hand absentmindedly which made him frown slightly but he dismissed it. "You know that it is the same year that Steve Rogers aka Captain America was created by both Howard and Doctor Erskine." Tony narrowed his eyes as he saw his father's young figure alongside Captain America and wondered how the older could say Howard's name like it was nothing. 

 

"Then he went in the ice and freeze." He licked his lips quickly. "Though he was found in the late 2011." This made everyone on the table freeze. "He is found?" Tony asked feeling like choking. Anthony nodded, rolling his eyes. "We didn't start on the best terms and it went like that rest of the years. Though I can say that I trusted him to have my back on the battlefield, other than that… Not so much." Anthony said with a grim expression in his eyes.

 

"Okay, moving on to 1989." He said and the timeline moved through 1989 with a somehow familiar woman on it alongside the Tesseract, which made Rhodey gasp silently. Tony could recall her slightly. "Carol…" Rhodey whispered than Tony remembered her. She was Rhodey's crush for awhile and close friend in the air force. "Yeah, Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel." Anthony said with sympathy in his tone. "I know you think she died back then, but believe me she didn't. Though in summary I can say that the motors that Doctor Marvell was working was inspired and powered through Tesseract. I don't know all the details but from what Carol said, she gained powers when the motors of the plane exploded." 

 

He stopped for awhile, like waiting for them to absorb the information. Tony on his part couldn't really follow the story. It was absurd in his opinion. But he could see Rhodey's tense posture relax somehow. "Powers?" He heard Pepper question. Anthony nodded with a grim expression on his face before he started to tell the unbelievable story of the woman. Tony was sure that on some point, Rhodey shed a few tears. "Is this seriously your life?" Tony asked with a frown on his face which earned him a sarcastic lopsided smile from the older. "Hmm it will be yours too in a few years." Anthony said before he moved the timeline to 2008 where his (their) hologram version and a bulky grey armor on it. It was weird to see it to be honest.

 

"From here every little detail will change because of me." He said with a grim expression. It was obvious that he didn't really like what he was about to say. "Though I think other than a few big points I don't think much will change." The older said before licking his lips quickly. "But I am sure that other than Ultron," timeline moved to 2015 showing a big humanoid looking metallic robot before moving to 2016, showing Tony and Captain America side to side with grim expressions. "...and the Civil War nothing will change. Well, I think being organized, responsible and no Iron Man announcement will help to protect our image, too." 

 

He said with narrowed eyes before raising his glance towards them, his dark eyes emotionless. "Though… That reminds me, we need to somehow contact SHIELD, to get the things they got from Howard when he died." He turned his eyes towards Pepper. "Did someone named Agent Phil Coulson contact you, Miss Potts?" He asked with a small smile on his face, which made Pepper frown slightly. "Yes actually." She said and turned her gaze towards Tony, making him frown slightly. "He wanted to debrief you about the escape you made from the cave and asked to make an appointment, but I never heard the agency he said that he was coming from." She turned her head back to Anthony. "Is he from SHIELD?" She asked which earned her a positive nod.

 

"Why do we need to contact SHIELD though? It doesn't make sense to me." Rhodey asked with a frown on his face, suddenly making everyone look at him. "I am sorry but they having Howard's things is also suspicious." Which was a good point that Tony could admit Why would some random alphabet soup agency have Howard's things? He thought he got everything when his parents died. Though looking at Anthony's face, seeing how expressionless it became, and made Tony's inside turn with a bad feeling. He had a very strong suspicion that he wasn't going to like anything he was going to say. It was obvious that Anthony himself didn't like it either. 

 

"Howard was a part of SHIELD. He was one of the founding members alongside Peggy Carter back in 1948." He said. "Howard was their sugar daddy, from what I know and when he died, they got everything he got which could benefit them and left other things. But the reason you didn't ever heard anything about SHIELD is because of Howard. He threatened them if they dared to come close to his kid, he would pull back the money from the organization." He raised one of his eyebrows with a sarcastic smile, turning his eyes towards Tony. "Guess the old man cared for us after all, huh?" 

 

Tony gulped down silently. "Anyway. We need to contact SHIELD because they have the research that Howard made which would allow us to create another element for the arc reactor." He pointed the arc reactor inside Tony chest, which resulted to everyone to focus on him. "Palladium is killing him and none other than the new element would be compatible enough for his health. Believe me, I went through that. It wasn't rainbows and laughs in the slightest."

 

Tony felt empty suddenly. How couldn't he? His dad… His dad was a part of a secret organization for years. He knew that Aunt Peggy was some kind of an agent, but he always thought that she was from FBI or CIA. But his dad? He could never guess that in a million years. And them getting the researches he made? Oh god… Tony always wondered why there were so little files about the researches his dad made. He clearly remember when he mentioned that to Obadiah, the man dismissed his thoughts quickly, which was quite unusual for him. 

 

"We need to plan how we could approach them though. They are sneaky." Tony heard Anthony say that cautiously. "Hey," He felt the older speak to him carefully. "You know, we can stop talking about this?" Tony honestly could appreciate it, because he could feel an anxiety attack approaching but he was also too stubborn to admit it. It was a weird mix. "No, we should continue." He said with a smile, even though he knew that no one would buy this small act of his, especially Anthony. It was obvious from his judging eyes but when he opened his mouth, Jarvis spoke.  _ “Sir, Mr. Stane is calling and he is insisting for you to accept.” _ Everyone froze with that. No one was expecting something like that at this hour, Tony let out a sigh before speaking up. “Jarvis decline-“

 

“Jarvis accept and direct it to me.” Anthony said with little care, his posture suddenly straightened and gained a convincing confidence and Tony’s usual media smile grew on his face. Okay… Tony was definitely impressed, though; he could see both Pepper and Rhodey frown slightly.  _ “As you wish Sir.” _ Jarvis said and a hologram screen popped open in front of the man and it wasn’t long before he saw Obie’s mirrored screen from behind, who was now facing Anthony. 

 

**“Tony, my boy! Nice to see you again!”** Obie’s voice boomed from the screen with his usual smile. “Hello Obie.” Anthony said with a false sweetness that made Tony frown. Obie said with sincerity as Tony heard, but judging from Anthony’s balled fists he didn’t have the same sentimentality. “Yeah, I can say.” Though his smile didn’t even falter despite his obvious frustration. “By the way the board meeting was in New York next week right?” 

 

He asked still looking at Obie. Wait. Wait, what board meeting? Tony turned his eyes towards Pepper, who was looking kinda guilty, which he didn’t understand. There was a lot of that he didn’t understand at the moment. And Tony wasn’t ready to see his godfathers smile even a little bit but there was it. He could see his eye twitch in the slightest too.  **“Yes, yes it was. How did you-”** Anthony let out a small chuckle, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You know, this is my company, right Obie? My name is on the side of the building; of course I would know whatever is going on there.” 

 

His emphasis on my word made Tony narrow his eyes. Though it made Tony remember that exact moment he told Obie the same thing after the press conference, while looking at the big arc reactor. (“That’s my name on the side of the building! I don’t want my only legacy to be a body count!”)

 

**“Of course, Tony, of course my boy. See you there then.”** Obie said with annoyance written in his eyes before ending the video call. Everyone was silent, Anthony had that predatory look in his dark eyes again which made Tony shiver. “What was that?” He asked finally after he became over the small shock. “Why did you answer it?” Tony asked again, this time exactly looking at Anthony this time, his tone sharp. 

 

Anthony though on his part didn’t even move a muscle at the tone directed on him and continued to give him that dark predatory look, sending him the same look he gave yesterday night. Like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.  It was the most frustrating minutes of Tony experienced in a while before Anthony decided to speak. “The start of a plan.” Anthony said with a lopsided smile. “I think you didn’t know there was a board meeting, am I right?” He asked which Tony gave a short nod, starting get uncomfortable. “I am going to be blunt. They were going to cast you out from the CEO position and  appoint a guardian to be sure that you were okay till you are free from your mental illness.” Anthony said bluntly, like he said before. 

 

Both Rhodey and Pepper seemed shocked, and Tony was feeling like a million trucks run over him. Cast him out from his own company? What for? “I don’t have mental illness…” Tony said with a slight frown on his face and Anthony pursed his lips. “To be honest, you have but it isn’t anything like they are going to exaggerate. Post traumatic stress disorder comes with a bag full of angry cats; I can say it, because I have lots of from those bags.” Anthony said with a soft tone, his eyes softened also while looking at him.

 

“The thing is who would bring that exaggerated mental illness shit to the board members?” Rhodey asked for the first time after the video call. “I might don’t know much about how your company works Tones, but I don’t think that people would listen who doesn’t have much share on the company.” And he was right too. If this kind of idea got accepted by the board members it should be one of the people who had a high percentage after Tony (He had 45% of the share) and who should be also close to him to know to exaggerate his mental illness problem in the first place. He could only think two people but… 

 

“Is it Obie?” He asked with a small voice while looking at Anthony. When Anthony gave a nod Tony closed his eyes, his chest heavy with the betrayal. “Why?” He asked with the same small voice, he saw the older grimace but it was gone as fast it came. “Why would he do that?” Tony asked, his tone getting sharper with every word. Obie was a father figure to him, after Edwin Jarvis of course but one nonetheless, more than his father at least. He was there when he was grieving of his mother's dead alongside Howard, helping him recover from it. But now… 

 

“He wants the company to himself and the easiest way to do that is getting you out of the picture.” Anthony said bluntly with a straight, expressionless face. His words made a bomb effect. Everyone could see the meaning behind his words. “If he wanted to be a CEO… I could’ve gotten out of the way…” Tony said trying to force himself to find a way to see the logic behind his godfather’s behavior. But from the look Anthony gave him, it wasn’t the case. “Do you remember this morning when I told I destroyed only the SI weapons that the terrorists had?” He asked while looking everyone’s face and they nodded hesitantly.

 

“They are being sold under the table since Howard was the CEO.” Anthony said and licked his lips quickly. “Guess who is behind it?” He said as he cocked his eyebrow which made Tony gulp down with the realization. Obie… Oh god… How couldn’t he saw this? How? They were so close together, he was the one with him in this whole goddamn 20 years! 

 

“You said he wanted Tony out of the picture,” Pepper said after a long while of silence. Making everyone focus on her. “Now I remember, he insisted that Tony should be the one who go to the weapon introduction to Afghanistan. Even though the head of R&D was ready to go months before for that introduction.” That new info made Anthony narrow his eyes while Tony let out a shuddering breath. 

 

“Please,” Rhodey said with a pleading tone it was something that Tony didn’t hear since MIT when he gave himself to alcohol. “Please tell me he isn’t behind Tony’s captive…” Which made Tony look uneasily on Anthony’s face, he wished it to be wrong. He wished it to be wrong with his whole being. But the universe seemed to reject his wish because Anthony let out a deep sigh. “I am sorry.” Was the only thing that Tony heard as his whole world crumbled beneath his feet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! First of all I am sorry for updating this late, being sick takes a lot of time to stay in bed :"D  
> Secondly, HOLY SHIT! The readings, bookmarks, subscriptions and kudos this story got while I am gone is so much, that I feel like smiling the whole day like and idiot :"D
> 
> Alright. so, I need names for our beautiful Anthony's fake everything :D
> 
> 1\. Anthony Carbonell  
> 2\. Edward Carbonell  
> 3\. Comment for any name you think will be good on him :D


	6. Hello brother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alright Please imagine "The Death" as Angelina Jolie's Maleficent and "The Life" as Cetrion from Mortal Kombat 11!
> 
> There is two POV's in this chapter and I'll be showing the POV change with "ÆÆÆÆÆ" these ^^

Walking down the busy streets of Kathmandu was definitely wasn’t on Tony’s to do list but he didn’t had any idea what to do after seeing how his younger self reacted to the betrayal of his godfather. He freaking… He freaking collapsed on the kitchen floor. No one knew what to do other than laying him down on the couch and just stand near him for a while till Rhodey, with a barely there hostile tone, requested that he should leave the house for now and that was what Tony did. It was the best for now, no one was in the mood to listen him without his younger self being awake, and he understood it. Even though he understood it, that didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt him. Seeing his friend using that hostile tone towards him was really hurtful. He shouldn’t let it hurt him, he wasn’t his Rhodey after all but he couldn’t help himself.

_He really missed them._

He missed his wife, his Platypus and his kids… Oh god… He missed them so damn much. He wanted sit down and cry whole day but… But he couldn’t. He couldn’t afford doing that while the universe was on stake by one genocidal maniac with the obsession of killing half the life on the whole goddamn universe, just to offer his love to Mistress Death (he had learnt this from Nebula who had a sneering expression on her face while explaining it). Apparently the man couldn’t take no for an answer. Killing half of the universe was the worst rejection reaction he ever saw in his whole life. Tony let out a silent snort with the thought, as he hold onto the jacket that Pepper gave him to wear tightly, than set right the beanie on his head he bought just a few minutes ago before he entered the big old temple cautiously. His eyes were looking at the faces of people, who came here to spin the prayer wheels, with a hope to see a familiar face but he knew pretty well that it was far too early for Strange to become a sorcerer. If he remembers correctly it was at the end of 2016 and early 2017.

God… If he started to look for Strange inside the crowd, he was (like Friday said) on the verge of breaking down. Even though they were good in the battlefield and worked flawlessly, it couldn’t be said in their normal lives. Their personalities were too much alike and they clashed far too much for anyone’s liking. Though, Morgan liked him a lot, because one time he let his cloak stay with her for a few hours after she gave him that irresistible puppy dog eyes. He made Friday record that few hours that she played with the cloak and thanked Strange for letting do that and the said man gave him a soft grin and portaled away. Before the portal closed, he saw the cloak send a wave to Morgan who waved at him too.

It was a good memory.

Anyway. _Concentrate you idiot._

He continued to walk down the temple, looking at the big ancient building and let out a sigh. He had no idea how he was going to find the entrance for Kamar Taj but from what he remembered (Strange had told him when he asked how he became a wizard), it should be in a small street, behind of a not so suspicious looking wooden door. But somehow he wasn’t willing to go there… he didn’t know what to tell to the people there even though he knew that they could sense the time discursion he had or somehow see the energy of the Time Stone on his whole being. Because Strange had saw it and sensed it. If he remembers correctly, The Ancient One should be able to do it far more easily than him, with her years of experiences on such occasions. To be honest Tony was surprised that she didn’t come and found him when he was in the middle of destroying the terrorist camps. Because he knew internally when he slammed down in the middle of the Afghan desert after the Backlash, he probably sent a signal to the whole universe that something was absolutely wrong. He just hoped that signal or whatever it is, wouldn’t bring anyone unpleasant to earth more early than it was supposed to be.

“You are far from home.”

Tony stilled with the serene voice he heard and slowly turned his head towards it carefully. That was when he saw the bald woman in her yellow monk robes, looking at him with a soft smile on her face. Tony tried to return her smile but he was far too tense even for that. “Yes, I know.” He said instead and continued to look at her with calculated eyes. The Ancient One tilted her head slightly to the right, before she slowly walked towards him. She was exactly like Strange told him, if he was going to be honest maybe even more. Her body language screamed that she was the one with the power between two of them yet she was also gentle and had that glint of wisdom in her eyes. When she stops in front of him with her ancient, genuine yet calculated eyes without saying anything, Tony almost felt like she was looking inside his soul, reading him like no one did before (Except Cetrion. She was a mean motherf-) and that makes him feel almost naked. Not in a comfortable one, by the way.

“Are you done wizaredess?” He asked with a smirk but it didn’t reach his eyes and he could tell that the annoying nickname didn’t even irritate her like it did to Strange. She only gave him a smile and reached to hold his right arm carefully, her fingers lightly brushing over his knuckles. Tony didn’t know what she was seeking but when she pulled her hand back; she had a calculating and amused glint in her eyes. Tony was honestly baffled by her. Even with the limited conversation they just had, he could tell that she was more than Strange told him. Though considering that both of them interacted on a very limited time before she died, it was remarkable that Strange had that much respect and memories with her.

“Would you like some tea, Mr. Stark? Maybe then you can tell me how your soul is touched by both life and death.”

Tony bristled with her last words. His whole body tensed further with the mention of _their_ name only. It was bad. He thought… He thought that he was over of what _they_ did, what _they_ made him do. But apparently he wasn’t. His body was still betraying him after all those years. “Sure.” He managed to say, putting his trembling hands inside the jackets pockets. Oh how he was grateful for the jacket, it gave him the ability of hiding his fists, that was probably not good at all, but he was going to take all advantages while he can. “Though I need to warn you, I am more like a coffee type.” With that The Ancient One quirked one of her eyebrows, her lips twitching upwards for a small smile before she turned away and made that circle movements and not longer after the golden portal opened which he became familiar with throughout the years. She made a gesture for him to get in first, which made Tony hesitate first but he got in it after he got another reassuring smile from the woman.

 

Though he stilled when he looked around, taking everything in slowly. The room was minimalist, like he imagined and both brown and beige colors were domineering the whole room. The only color he could see was Tao’s (The Ancient One was way too long for his fast thinking hyperactive brain) bright yellow monk robes. “Please have a seat, I will be back soon.” She pointed one of the small wooden stools before disappearing behind a door. Tony licked his lips as he made his way towards the wooden stool and sat down tiredly. He took off the beanie and ruffled his hair quickly which was as greasy as much as Loki’s because of not bathing or showering over two weeks now. To be honest he could blame that he was way too busy for showering but than he could’ve taken one when he was still with his younger self at the Malibu Mansion. _Pepper would’ve been furious._ He chuckled to himself and took off the jacket also, folding and placing it on the floor close to his stool and started to wait for Tao. Fortunately she came quickly and sat down on the other wooden stool which was in front of him. Tony noticed immediately that the bright yellow robes were replaced with simple beige clothes and she had a ceramic teapot and small cups which were replaced on the table between them. Without saying anything she poured tea in the cups and pushed one of them towards him slowly. Even cautiously, Tony wrapped his fingers around the cup, feeling the calming warm that radiated from it, feeling the small merciful calmness it brought for a limited time.

 

“You were looking for me.” Tony said finally after taking a small sip from the tea, glancing at Tao’s carefully blank face as she sipped her tea. Tony _knew_ that she would be looking for the misfit, or at least track down the source of the insane amount of energy that the stones imprinted on him. She looked at him with calculating eyes before nodding.

 

“We did try.” She said and tilted her head to the side slightly, her eyes looking directly inside his, again, making him squirm on his place uncomfortably. “We tried to pinpoint the energy of the Time Stone,” she stopped to sip her tea. “But it was all over the place, probably due to mixing with her siblings energy. I only managed to find you when you came here, which made me think that I wasn’t the only one who was seeking some answers.” Tony sipped his tea without saying anything for a few minutes. Thankfully she didn’t pressure him for answers. It was a good change. “I want to know, Mr. Stark, if it is possible, how your soul is touched by both life and death at the same time.”

 

Tony froze on his place for a few seconds with the question, because he didn’t know how to tell her, because even if he decided to tell her how it happened, how he met The Life and The Death, he needed to tell her _everything_. Twenty year worth of knowledge… and that scared him. Scared of living through that hell again because he knew, he knew he was over with things happened in the past, his body still betrayed him. He gulped down slightly. “That is a very lengthy story wizardess.” He said with a quit tone. Tao gave him a reassuring smile before she spoke

 

“Oh but Mr. Stark, we have all the _time._ ”

 

Tony would give his respect to the woman after she listened to everything and when he says it, he means _everything_. From his captivity in Afghanistan to the first contact with Chitauri in 2012, from Ultron and how his head was messed up by Wanda’s magic (that made the woman frown slightly but it was gone as fast as it came) to how they lost the fight on Titan to Thanos, how Strange gave the Time Stone to save his life (Tony rolled his eyes there) and after that everyone turned to dust. Though he needed to stop there for a few minutes, take a sip from the chamomile tea and tried to not let his anxiety shown. But since he was coming to the part where he met with The Life (Cetrion) and The Death, he felt the need to stop and prepare himself mentally. He never spoke about his experience with those entities with anyone, they wouldn’t understand. Maybe Peter would have understood him, after all he was the only one who felt his whole body turning to dust and heal at the same time due his fast healing… but he wasn’t going to burden the kid more than necessary. He had already problems over his head.

 

“I died and been brought back.” He said shortly, licking his lips quickly looking inside the tea cup. “I don’t remember much but…but I know there was a very violent argument between Life and Death after Life brought me back from death after the final battle.” He closed his eyes tightly after finishing his sentence, his grip tightening around the tea cup. Tao was silent for a while, he didn’t know why at all but he appreciated nonetheless. Though when she spoke he felt like someone was squeezing his heart with a very tight grip, because her tone was serious. She wasn’t joking with anything she was saying.

 

“You need to understand Mr. Stark that you have a very unique role with the fate of the universe as the chosen champion of Life and Death and I can see why they have chosen you.” Her tone was serious yet reassuring. “I will give my assistance as much as possible within your mission.” With that Tony raised his gaze towards her from the tea cup. Okay… he wasn’t expecting this offer, not at all.

 

“Uhmm… Okay I wasn’t expecting this.” He admitted with a disbelieving tone in his voice, his eyebrows raised with the emotion he felt. Tao’s reaction was chuckling before she grabbed the teapot gently and poured some tea in both of their cups with a smile on her lips. It was peaceful for a few minutes after that, till Friday alerted him that Pepper was calling him, so he excused himself to take the call before he get up from the stool and a few feet away from his new ally.

 

“Hello Miss Potts.” He answered the call with a small smile, even though he knew that she wouldn’t see it.

 

 _“Hello Mr. Carbonell.”_ She answered with a familiar tight tone in her voice, making him frown slightly. She only used that tone when she was under a lot of stress or when there were some people she really didn’t like at all. _“We have some guests over who wants to debrief you alongside your **brother**.”_ Tony could imagine how she was glaring at the people with her tight smile, though when he heard her emphasizing brother, he felt his anger rise.

 

“Guests?” He said with a slight Italian accent, for the sake of their new play, because he had a faint idea that the phone was on speaker. “What sort of guests are we talking about? Is it FBI or CIA?” He asked being careful to sound clueless, even though he knew it was freaking SHIELD who was there. “Is _fratello*_ okay?” there was a bit silence before she spoke again.

 

 _“Oh he is alright, don’t worry Arno.”_ She said and Tony frowned with the name she said. Arno? Wait… What in the- _“They just want to know when will you arrive from Italy and have a formal debriefing.”_

 

“I will be there next week… before a meeting or something.” He muttered making sure that his voice came out unsure and turned to look at Tao, who was drinking her tea and looking at him with an eyebrow raised. “Tonio mentioned when he called earlier today.”  He added after a few seconds.  He heard someone clear his throat from her end and after saying goodbye, Pepper ended the call. After pocketing his phone, Tony hesitantly turned to look at the Tao.

 

“Say wizardess, can you give me a lift?”

 

**ÆÆÆÆÆ**

 

It was two days.

Two days since he fainted onto the kitchen floor and closed himself inside his workshop and started to finish project after project and when there was no project left, he started to make a car from scratch, just to busy his mind. If he didn’t, he knew that his mind was going to wander back to his friends pitying looks when he woke up at the couch and stormed down to his workshop. He wasn’t even going to think Anthony’s face, right before he fainted. It was the only thing he hated of that little, second worth moment.

That dark and knowing eyes was full of understanding. Even though they radiated warmth, there was something that he couldn’t identify, something that chilled his whole being. That brief moment was the only reason he was scared from Anthony at the moment. Though he kept wondering; what did happen to him to be like _that_? “Don’t think about him.” He muttered firmly while he was giving the last touches of the motor he was working on before closing the bonnet. He let out a sigh as he closed his eyes, combing his unruly curls backwards. He didn’t care at the moment if his hands were clean or not, he stopped caring about that the moment he closed himself inside the workshop two days ago. Now though, there wasn’t anything left to do (There were a lot of things to do but Jarvis and probably Friday too, locked his whole servers. That traitors.), his hyperactive mind started to focus on details he should not focus.

Like looking throughout the years, looking his interaction with Obie- _Stane_ , he could see the little things showed him that how the other man was malicious towards him, towards Howard. He never understood why both Jarvis’s didn’t like him before to be honest. He could distinctly remember that Jarvis giving the man harsh answers and pretending like he didn’t hear him. It had caused some fights between Jarvis and Howard, sometimes Aunt Peggy too, but it never got too violent. It was probably only because that they were old friends. Jarvis always tried to get him away whenever Stane was around. Both him and Anna. Anna especially was like a mama bear when she was fine enough to give him her attention. At that age he only enjoyed the attention of the adults, didn’t matter whoever gave it. Though he can clearly see now that his desperate want of getting affection or attention (negative or positive didn’t matter) from whoever gave didn’t change and he didn’t know what to think of this new information…

 

 _“Sir, Miss Potts is requesting to get in the workshop.”_ Tony frowned as he turned his eyes towards one of Jarvis’s cameras. Pepper never asked Jarvis to notify of her presence, hence the glass walls and the noise of her heels. _“It appears that there are two people with her, Sir. According to Friday, they are SHIELD director Nicholas Joseph Fury and Agent Philip Coulson.”_ Oh… That was why she was notifying him, warning him that they had guests. Dangerous guests. Even though they were on the good side, it didn’t change them being dangerous level guests. “Get them in J.” He said as he shook off his bad mood and grabbed a cloth to wipes his hands, it wasn’t long before Pepper and two men behind her get in the shop. One of them was wearing head to toe black clothes and had an eye patch and the other one was wearing a neat suit. Both of their faces was blank from emotion, even though they were trained super spies Tony could see their eyes observing everything around them. Maybe because he knew what to look..

 

“Hello.” He said simply, throwing the cloth on one of his working tables. “So who did the wind bring, Miss Potts?” His eyes found Pepper’s before trailed back to two men, looking directly inside their eyes. But before Pepper can open her mouth to introduce them, Coulson reached to hold his hand. “Agent Phil Coulson, from The Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.” Oh wow… It was like Pepper and Anthony said, quite mouthful. “Oh wow… that’s a very long agency name…” Tony expressed as he reached and shook his hand before turning to look at Fury, who was basically dissecting him with his eyes before turning to look at Coulson. “Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD.” He saw Coulson’s lips curl upwards slightly. Obviously Coulson liked to fuck with people. Tony only gave a nod before pursing his lips slightly. “So… why are you here?” He asked, pulling his hand away from the agents grasp as he raised his chin slightly. “Pepper said that you wanted to debrief me a few weeks ago.”

 

 Coulson’s eyes turned slightly towards Pepper, before turning towards him again and giving a nod. “Yes, we did.” Coulson said. “About your escape alongside Doctor Ho Yinsen.” Tony clenched his jaw the moment that words left Agent’s lips, his eyes darkening. “Your escape was quite surprising, to the whole world. But I must admit that finding nothing about how you escaped from your captivity is suspicious.” Tony narrowed his eyes slightly, tilting his head to the side.

 

To be honest even though Anthony didn’t tell him much about SHIELD, Tony could sense that they meant trouble, an enormous trouble. So yesterday night Tony started to dig some information about them with Jarvis (who was probably getting info from Friday too). The things he found weren’t the nicest things and instinctively he knew that this was only the things he could find on the surface of the big ice berg. Plus since Anthony told them that Howard was kinda their sugar daddy, he looked at their bank accounts, money transfers and found out that one third of SI’s earnings was going to SHIELD’s employees, from high ranks to new started agents. He basically owned SHIELD. Jesus.

 

“Suspicious?” He raised one of his eyebrows, challenging the man to continue. “How is not wanting to speak about two months of hell suspicious, Agent?” Coulson gave him a calculated look before looking back at Fury. Tony didn’t understand what voiceless conversation went between them but in the end Fury gave a nod and Coulson took something from his jacket and gave it to Tony. It looked like a file but he couldn’t be sure before looking inside of them. “I don’t like to be handed things.” He said as he turned his gaze to Pepper, who graciously took the file from Coulson and stood close to Tony as she opened its cover.

 

“Where did you find these?” He asked while his whole body tensed, his eyes scanning the low quality photos Coulson gave them. It was taken from a security footage, which suspiciously looked like the cave he was held with Yinsen. Photos showed three people, Tony himself with Yinsen and Anthony with his silver black stealth armor. Even though his face didn’t showed up at all due to low quality, it was kinda obvious that he resembled with Tony’s image. “Where did you find these?” He asked again, his eyes travelling back to Fury and Coulson’s faces. They were not giving anything away, but Tony had a very big suspicion that they wanted to speak with the other person too.

 

“Like you think Stark, from the security footage of the cave. Whoever did the destroying did an impressive job; but he definitely forgot to destroy these.”  Fury said without an emotion on his face, though it was obvious that they wanted to know Anthony’s identity. “We want to know, who is the hero who saved you?” _More like demand._ Tony thought angrily, his eyes scanning the photos.

“He is my brother.” Tony said without looking at them, clenching his fists and jaw. He could feel a small amount of shock radiating from everyone, Pepper wasn’t that surprised but she wasn’t expecting this either. “He saved me.” He muttered as he raised his gaze towards the two spies. They had the surprised look inside their eyes.

 

“There isn’t any record of another child for Howard Stark?” Coulson said matter-o-factly, making Tony sent a sarcastic smile towards his way and let out a snort. Oh, fucking with SHIELD was going to be so fun.

 

“You think anyone could know this? Of course it isn’t in the records, because he is not a Stark.” He shrugged as he made his way towards one of his chairs and sit down. “And it was hidden by the most powerful people at the time, so good luck finding it.” he tilted his head to the side and gave a thoughtful stare to them before turning his gaze towards Pepper. “If you want a confirmation we can call him. Though… If you bother him in anyway, believe me Agent and Space Pirate, you both will regret ever deciding it.” He said with a sickeningly sweet tone, giving a nod towards Pepper who wasn’t looking sure in the slightest before she took out her blackberry from her jacket pocket and called Anthony, when he answered she gave the call to the speakers for others to hear.

 

 _“Hello Miss Potts.”_ The familiar voice answered the call and both Fury and Coulson gave a look at each other. They probably thought that Tony was faking it but hearing his voice, hopefully, confirmed that their brothers lie.

 

“Hello Mr. Carbonell.” Pepper said with her tight tone as she gave a murderous look towards the spies, daring them to interrupt her. “We have some guests over who wants to debrief you alongside your _brother_.”

 

 _“Guests?”_ He said with a slight Italian accent, which Tony definitely approved. He had a quick wit. _“What sort of guests are we talking about? Is it FBI or CIA?”_ Tony shook his head slightly. _“Is fratello okay?”_ Worried and quick question came after a few seconds, surprising Tony and Pepper.

 

“Oh he is alright, don’t worry Arno.” Pepper said with a small smile on her face, glad that she researched what kind of names that they could use for him. “They just want to know when will you arrive from Italy and have a formal debriefing.”

 

 _“I will be there next week… before a meeting or something.”_ He muttered, sounding unsure about it. _“Tonio mentioned when he called earlier today.”_ He added after a few seconds, making Coulson and Fury give him a weird look. Though this little conversation seemed good enough for the spies as Coulson cleared his throat and signaled Pepper that this was good enough. So after saying goodbye, Pepper ended the call and turned to look at the spies with her professional expression.

 

“If this is all, gentleman, let me show you the door.” She said with a voice that didn’t let a space for argument and made her way towards the stairs, spies after her. Though before going Fury stopped and turned to look at Tony.

 

“See you next week, Stark.” Than he went after the other two, making Tony sigh with relief and lean back on the chair. Even though they didn’t had planned this through or speak with Anthony beforehand, it went well. More well than two days ago at least. He relaxed further when he saw Pepper come back and sit down on the chair next to him with a huff.

 

“That was quick thinking.” Tony muttered with a sigh, licking his lips quickly and heard Pepper chuckle slightly. “Really I am thankful, Peps. You are a savior.” He said with a smile on his lips which made Pepper give him an amused smirk.

 

“Indeed it was quick thinking.” Said another voice, making both Pepper and Tony scream and fall from their respective chairs. It was Anthony, who was leaning on the glass walls with a quirked eyebrow. Tony had a feeling that he was judging them and indeed, he was doing exactly that. “No hello? You break my heart _brother_.” He said sarcastically before coming towards them and helping them get up from the floor.

 

“Well, _hello brother_.” Tony waved him off as he sat down back on the chair like Pepper did before he saw Anthony pull another chair in front of them and sit down. Even though Tony saw his sarcasm oozing throughout his whole being, he could see that the other was tired as well. Too tired for his own good. “Well if you were here and we discussed this before, everything would’ve been smoother. We needed to make them believe us.” He shrugged and saw Anthony roll his eyes as he muttered something under his breath. “Anyway,” he cleared his throat. “Where were you?”

 

“Oh I was visiting someone who could help us through our struggles and smooth every other space related things.” He gave a nonchalant shrug, like the thing he just said was an everyday thing. “Though don’t worry, you will definitely meet with her. So what did you tell them, what’s the back story?” Okay… Tony was definitely curious what the hell he was talking but since he closed the subject before any of them asking it, they started to tell what happened between the two spies and them and Anthony listened without interrupting.

 

“So that’s what you said to them.” Anthony said while looking down at the floor, his face not revealing anything. “We need to prepare everything for this fake personality of mine than. Because if I know Fury or Coulson, they are not going to let this go easily.” Tony nodded slightly at that. That man looked like he could dissect him on the moment if he had the chance. “So, you said Arno, right? That can be my first name, good choice by the way.” He sended a wink to Pepper, which made her give him a small smile. “So what would be the second name? It would be sensible because you have a second name.” He said when Tony opened his mouth, though Tony rolled his eyes at that.

 

“I wasn’t going to reject it, for your information. I was thinking about Colin or Edoardo as second name for you.” He said with a smirk on his lips, making both Pepper and Anthony roll their eyes. Though even if they seemed annoyed, Tony could see the amusement in their eyes. “So it is either ‘Arno Colin Carbonell’ or ‘Arno Edoardo Carbonell’.” Tony said as his eyes went between Pepper and Anthony, who had a thoughtful expression on his face.

 

“Arno Edoardo Carbonell sounds pretty good for me.” Anthony said with a genuine smile on his lips. “So Friday and Jarvis can start making the needed documents and online things.” He said. “Though… We need to restyle your hair like mine, even just to give shit to the press.” Tony felt a smirk creeping on his lips with this suggestion, though that smirk vanished when Anthony started to talk again. “And I am going to give you one of my red and gold nano armors alongside a few technological blueprints about StarkPad and StarkPhone; we need to work this through the board members, because they are really pissed at you closing the weapons division and that makes it easy for Stane to manipulate them.”

 

The air tensed suddenly with Anthony mentioning Stane’s name. It was… It was hard for him to not tense with his name. He paid a terrorist group to kill him, his godson... “How can you say his name like that?” Tony asked directing his gaze on Anthony’s eyes. “How can you do that this easily?” He asked, clenching his jaw as tight as possible as he watched Anthony sigh and close his eyes before opening them again. He could feel Pepper’s hand wrapping around his own and squeeze it for comfort.

 

“These events are twenty years in my past, so I am over it and you’ll be too. You need to. You need to learn getting over from this kind of situations because I am sorry but there is going to be a lot of names that you would have hard time to hear and try to not have a panic attack.” Anthony finished with sad eyes. Tony closed his eyes tightly. What he said was logical… But his mind wasn’t working logical at the moment.

 

“Twenty?” Pepper asked, pulling him from his thoughts. “You said twenty years in your past… Tony is thirty eight and that makes you what, fifty eight?”She asked with unbelievable big eyes which made Anthony laugh quietly as he let out an agreeing hum, the tense air disappearing immediately. “You don’t look like fifty eight…” She muttered, eyeing his future self head to toe and Tony couldn’t help but agree with her. He didn’t look like fifty eight…

 

“How in the hell are you fifty eight?” Tony voiced his thoughts, glad for the topic change making Anthony laugh louder this time.

 

“Oh, I don’t?” He asked with amused eyes and quirked eyebrow. “Hmm you might be right. I am juiced up with some hotness.” He said with a mysterious tone, confusing both Pepper and Tony as he get up from the chair and make his way towards the stairs. Tony frowned as he watched him disappear from his sight and turned to look at Pepper.

 

“What?”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright I am hella late :"D
> 
> At first, I was on a vacation with my family than after that I had writer's block and I still do so I hope this chapter turned good enough...
> 
> Fratello = Brother
> 
> Plus I am open to request of how everything should go in the next chapter! Looking forward for your suggestions :D


	7. Winter is coming

Speaking in front of people was Tony’s strong side since he was a 4 years old toddler. But it didn’t mean that he liked to do it, no not at all. So when one week ago Anthony (Arno, he needed to get used to calling him that in the public) revealed that there was going to be a board meeting where Obadiah planned to cast him out from his CEO position, and even though he didn’t like having this much responsibility (paperwork and these board meetings) he would never leave his company on a liars hands like that. He prefers to die before that could happen. “So let’s get over the story again.” He said as he pushed a creamed coffee in front of the older, while he continued to hack through SHIELD files manually. Tony knows that Friday or Jarvis could do that, even they had other objectives to complete. But he could see that Anthony was becoming restless, snapping even to little things this past week. Like everything. But he could see also that he was trying to control himself and take his anger from the punching bags down the gym turned training room. God… he had mean punches. He wondered who he imagined hitting like that with that much of vengeance.

 

“Alright. Let’s go over it again for you,” Anthony started, his fingers stopped moving over the keyboard and turn to look at him directly in the eye. “When we were born, neither of our parents knew what to do. So they gave me to the now-deceased cousin of our mother to raise me, for the sake of one of their kids to live normally, away from the spotlight. That was our mother’s idea. But we didn’t lose any connection, you came with mom and both Jarvis’s to visit me back in Italy.” Tony gave a nod for him to continue as he took a sip from his coffee himself, pulling a chair to sit in front of him. “Plus other than our family only General Phillips and Aunt Peggy knew this situation. Both of them have huge clearance and resources to hide the truth and can be trusted to keep it to themselves. And no one can ask them anything about this because General Phillips is deceased and Aunt Peggy has dementia. But when our parents died…” Anthony sighed and licked his lips before continuing, which made Tony frown though he didn’t linger on it. “When our parents died we spoke about revealing myself to be with you but decided to keep it a secret once again. Though when I learnt that your convoy got attacked from Rhodey, I had enough and started to make a plan to save you from your captivity with the help of Jarvis and Friday, and when I located you in Afghanistan, I came to save you with the suit I made. Yinsen was a surprising addition.”

 

Tony gave a nod and took a sip from his own coffee. He knew this story wasn’t perfect, but it was fine enough for now. They could work on it when they didn’t have a deadline. “Okay. Alright, that’s good.” He muttered and took a sip from his coffee, licking his lips afterward. “So… What are you working on now?” He asked as his eyes started to scan the hologram screens. But it didn’t take long for him to notice what he was doing. “Are these people working for Stane?” He asked bitterly, looking at the names he was pretty familiar with.

 

“Yep,” Anthony answered, turning back to look at the screen. “I am collecting evidence against the employees and people who worked against us behind our back for years. Especially on Stane.” He said, narrowing his eyes slightly at the screen. “We are good on that side because he was becoming sloppy on covering his tracks. If you didn’t get in captivity it was a matter of time that Jarvis or you caught him.” Anthony muttered as he bit his lower lip. “Bingo.” A lopsided smirk appeared on his lips. “Look at this.” He pointed out the information for Tony to see, which made him frown with a slightly open mouth.

 

“Sokovia… He sold weapons to a country having a goddamn civil war?”  Tony couldn’t help but feel dread filling his stomach, his mouth got dried with the sheer horror of it. He knew that the things he made were made to kill, he knew that pretty well, but he never thought that his weapons could end up in the hands of a group against the other in a country having a civil war. “Baron Wolfgang von Strucker… He is the one bought the weapons.” He muttered and turned his eyes to Anthony, who looked like he knew the name, which was kinda obvious from the distasteful expression he made. “You know him,” Tony stated after a few seconds and Anthony gave a nod without looking at him, his fingers stopped moving as he reached for his coffee mug.

 

“I do.” He said shortly after taking a sip and closing his eyes momentarily like he was trying to decide if he should tell him the info he has about the object or not. It was his default expression these days, to be honest. “I met him in a very bad situation and it led me into not so good another situation.” He sighed like he was trying to hold himself from getting into details. Honestly, Tony couldn’t blame him. Not even a little bit, because after telling him his godfather’s betrayal, Tony’s reaction to that part of info was fainting. But they needed to do it sooner or later because the hour was ticking for the inevitable end. Even if that hour was eleven years long. 

 

“You know, you can tell me whatever happened. I won’t judge.” 

 

“You won’t?” Anthony quirked an eyebrow, his jaw clenched slightly which made Tony suspicious of what was about to come. Because he could feel that this was going to end with a metaphorical slap on his face. “It ended me destroying Sokovia’s capital city. There was a big crater in its place when everything ended. I killed thousands of people that day.” Anthony tilted his head to the right, running his tongue over his teeth before speaking. “Tell me now that you won’t judge again.” Tony hated how he was right sometimes. Because it was a slap on the face really, a hard one that was it. The dread he felt a few seconds ago was multiplied after this little info but he had a feeling that Anthony left out a lot of details about what really happened. He knew that because he himself left out a lot of details about his captivity in Afghanistan. He knows that Rhodey could guess the details but that was it, nothing more.

 

Anthony wasn’t different. He was only a lot darker than himself.

 

“I won’t,” Tony said with a barely-there smile on his lips. “Because believe it or not, whatever happened we are the same person in the core. It doesn’t matter how you changed in the future.” The change on Anthony’s face wasn’t immediate but Tony could see the small shine inside his dark eyes. Though it wasn’t enough, he just wanted to see that smile a few days ago he let it shown to Pepper and him. Though if he thought about it, he had the same smile with him and he didn’t know it was that beautiful and satisfying to see. He cleared his throat. He needed a topic change. “So, you were talking about teaching me how to use the armor?” The sly grin he saw on Anthony’s face should be telling him something, but come on, how hard it could be to learn to use the suit?

 

Turns out, it was hard to learn how to use the suit. Even Anthony’s useful advice didn’t help him in the slightest bit. But Tony was stubborn and determined, and pushed himself to his limits to learn it, which ended with him sitting on the sofa inside the workshop with cold compressors pressed on his sore limbs while giving the look of doom towards Anthony, who wasn’t even trying to hold his laugh anymore as he did a few hours ago. “Can you please stop…” He grumbled as he reached to the smoothie Dum-E put in front of him a few minutes ago with concerned whirs and beeps. “It really hurts, jeez…” He grumbled and winced when he felt his arm started the ache warningly, making him stop momentarily from reaching his smoothie cup.

 

“I know,” Anthony said as he grabbed the smoothie Dum-E brought to him with an amused smirk. “This is nothing though. You are only lucky that you started with nano suit.” He said and sipped the smoothie slowly while looking at him. “The first armor I made was 425 pounds (193 kilograms).” With that info Tony nearly choked on his smoothie, coughing while looking at Anthony with eyes shouting that he couldn’t believe what he was saying. “Though, that was the one I made inside the cave with Yinsen. The first proper one I made here was 225 pounds (102 kilograms).” He shrugged slightly and took another sip from his smoothie, ignoring the look Tony gave him. “Moving in them was no joke, even with the semi-automatic joints and Jarvis. I am not complaining though, it gave me a more bulky look.” He said with a lopsided smile, tilting his head to the side slightly. Tony believed him. Because the difference between them was obvious, Anthony had more muscle mass than he did. And Tony could see them, if they were on somebody else, he would enjoy himself while eyeing them. But it was on his alternate dimension version, which made him kinda feel weird with the thoughts he was having at the moment.

 

“Well… They seem heavy.” He muttered and finally took a sip from his smoothie. “So what are we going to do with this?” He asked as he tapped on the arc reactor carefully. “I mean I don’t feel the effects yet, but the sooner we synthesize the new element the better it is.” Anthony didn’t answer him for a while as he sipped his smoothie, his eyes focused on something Tony couldn’t see.

 

“First time around I made the new element with the help of SHIELD, but I don’t want to put you up with them. They are shady, closer to the dark side of the spectrum. They answer to no one, which makes them arrogant and self-righteous on what are they doing for the good of the world.” Anthony said with a bitter expression on his face. “Anyway, that problem is going to be solved tomorrow. Don’t worry too much about it.” He gave a reassuring smile to him before speaking again. “By the way, this hair looks good on you.” He said genuinely, finishing his smoothie finally. “Thank you Dum-E, this was good.”

 

“Yep, it was good. Guess I’m not donating you to City College.” Tony said teasingly towards the bot, who whirred happily as he rolled away towards his charging station where Butterfingers and U were. “You are leaving tonight for Italy, right?” He asked casually after finishing his own smoothie as well. Anthony answers him with a hum.

 

“I will leave midnight; it will only take 3 hours for me to arrive there with the armor.” He let out a sigh. “I am going to leave the other housing units here with you, don’t forget to wear the one we practiced with; Friday already showed Jarvis how to use the armor.” He stopped momentarily to pull his legs under himself. “I need a normal suit for the meeting.” He added with an apologetic smile on his lips. “Not at the moment though!” He said quickly when Tony opened his mouth to it will be ready. “Tomorrow at the airport, when Happy comes to get me he could bring the suit also. I am good for now with jeans and a t-shirt, no need to crumple the suit in the armor.” Tony gave a confused nod at the older man before he got up from his seat and stretched with small grunts. “I will be heading to bed, see you tomorrow, brother~.” He said with a sarcastic grin on his lips and headed to the stairs, leaving Tony behind with a confused expression on his face.

 

“That man is confusing as hell…” He muttered, taking another sip from the smoothie before turning his eyes to look at the housing units the older left on the working table with curiosity. He really wanted to try them on, every one of them. But he knew that he was in no condition to try them out at the moment, after that failed attempts to use the easiest armor inside of them (Anthony had said it was Mark 50 or something), he was holding himself. For now though.

 

“Goodnight Jarvis.” He said as he got up from the sofa and made his way towards the stairs slowly, leaving the cold compressors on the working tables one by one as he headed towards the stairs. Maybe a long warm shower would make the pain go away.

 

_“Goodnight Sir. Sleep well.”_

 

**ÆÆÆÆÆ**

 

“I am doing fine Friday. I can fly the suit on my own.” Tony said between greeted teeth as he closed his temporary room’s door as slowly as possible, without alarming Jarvis and his younger version. He didn’t need more mother hen; Friday was enough on her own with reading his stress levels as much as Jarvis did and forcing him to do her advice. Fuck it.

 

 _“I am not saying you can’t Boss. I am just saying that I can take more of its control than you at the moment. Because I am seeing your stress levels are on the rise since your little chat with your… brother. I assume that little mention of Sokovia triggered your PTSD, which brings us again to the square one, which is that I am going to fly the suit because when you are in this state, you get seriously reckless.”_ Friday said with which Tony suspected as subtle sarcasm towards the ends. But he couldn't ignore her concerns. Even if she didn’t explicitly said that he was on the edge of having a panic attack alongside the mixed cocktail of week’s worth of stress and longing of people he couldn’t see anymore-

 

Alright.

 

Not going there.

 

No.

 

Not freaking now.

 

“I still can do it…” He said his voice is less stubborn than before. He could do it. He was just going to fly over the ocean and half of the Mediterranean Sea, nothing big. Not really. Even though Friday didn’t say anything to that, he could feel her judging him from her limited servers inside of the watch and his main housing unit/arc reactor. If she was a human, he could see her giving him a sarcastic snort.

 

“Anyway, did you gather the evidence files for Stane’s case?” He asked instead of arguing with her again as he sat down on the bed, taking his shoes off and laid on the bed while listening to Friday list the things she did alongside gathering evidence files. Which was planning more of his new personas background in detail, giving reasons why he was never seen on media, like ever? Even though he grew up in Italy, people could still recognize him because of his face. She brought an easy solution to that. Correspondence school for college and homeschooling for primary, secondary and high school.  Plus Aunt Sofia was a little paranoid about anyone seeing him and she had very important _friends_ , so no one questioned her top-secret nephew for years.

 

“You know… That’s a good idea Fri.” Tony smiled; happy for once that something good was happening on that side, but he frowned slightly when he remembered something. “Though I think we should have given a warning to Legal and PR for this. Because once I am on the stage everything is going to be a mess…” Well calling that a mess would be a little bit underestimating. Tony could only imagine how could this shadow his younger selfs announcement about shutting down the weapon division, how it could make way for them to announce that he was Iron Man in a controlled environment and not by Christine’s insistence of revealing something that she didn’t know that will affect the whole universe. **_<_ ** _You can rest now, we will be okay…_ **_>_ ** Pepper’s voice echoed in his head momentarily, pulling him towards the edge of the forgotten memories.

 

Tony took a deep breath.

 

 _“I informed Jarvis and he will pass it to your brother Boss.”_ Friday’s voice pulled him to reality without allowing him to fall into the endless pit of painful memories.

 

“Good. That’s good.” Tony gulped down and looked at the ceiling, licked his lips before deciding to get up from the bed and walked towards the glass wall, watching the ocean. Watching how it reflected the dark sky, stars, and the moon. “Friday?”

 

_“Yes, Boss?”_

 

“Let’s go now. Shall we? There is no point in waiting.” He said as he opened the glass wall with little difficulty. He took a deep breath when the oceans salty air hit his face; a small smile grew on his lips right before he jumped off from his room, the stealth suit forming over his body in a few seconds before he blasted through the sky, leaving all of the control to Friday, as he watched everything throughout the HUD. This was beautiful. Amazing even. He really forgot how it was only to fly, without worrying about teammates or people who could get seriously hurt if he didn’t give his mind to it.

 

It was freeing.

 

***

 

_"Готов подчиниться." (Ready to comply.)_

 

**ÆÆÆÆÆ**

 

“Tony, can you calm down?” Pepper asked as she looked at the notes Anthony gave her about the board meeting two days prior. She didn’t like the things she read in the slightest, but there was nothing she could do about it, other than helping Tony and _Arno_ get through this mess with less damage as possible. But till now, doing that seemed kinda hard. “Seriously. Can you stop tapping on your leg?” She said with an annoyed tone, which stopped the tapping immediately. “I know you are nervous Tony, but please, we are only hours away from the meeting. We need to be prepared as much as possible for it.” She said more sympathetically this time.

 

“I am not nervous,” Tony replied without looking at  her, his fingers itching to do something to get rid off from the restlessness he started to feel the moment he woke up in his bed, his whole body aching from the training with the suit yesterday night, his mind wandering towards the board meeting and the real possibility that he was going to see Stane dawned on him with all its weight. “I just want this shit to finish as soon as possible.” He nearly added that he wanted to see Anthony too but decided to not say it. Everything was already weird with his presence around. Like… He wasn't like he was used to being with anyone he knew. His rare calls with Rhodey were strained, though it was already strained even before he learned that Anthony's presence because of _that_ press conference. Pepper was… She was a completely different story because of the things he had yet to discover.

 

"You and me both Tony, you and me both." Pepper sighed as she looked at their wristwatch, unaware everything going on with Tony. "Alright, we should be able to land in half an hour, do you want to contact Anthony?" She asked as she tilted her head slightly to the right. Tony gave a negative nod. "Okay… I will speak with him though, so excuse me. I will be here before the plane lands." She said and got up from her seat with the notes she took with Anthony and made her way towards the end of the plane, leaving Tony with his thoughts alone. 

 

Tony wouldn't lie, he got more relaxed when Pepper left to speak with Anthony. He didn't really felt like speaking with anyone about anything. He just wanted to drink till he could lose himself inside the sweetness of that familiar numbness. But… but he couldn't give any chance to the people who would try to kick his ass out of his own goddamn company with being drunk or tipsy. _"Sir? We are about to land."_ Jarvis's voice pulled him from his thoughts with curiosity and worry in his tone. _"Sir Anthony will be waiting for you at the entrance alongside Mr. Hogan."_ Tony only gave a nod and closed his eyes as tightly as possible. 

 

He opened them when he felt Pepper push his shoulder slightly to wake him up, her green eyes concerned with worry. "We landed, come on." She said with a little smile on her lips. Tony got up from his seat and get out from the plane and made his way towards the airport building, thankfully everything went smoothly and they met with a dumbfounded Happy waiting outside a black car. Tony frowned slightly at his expression.

 

"What's wrong Hap?" He asked with a light tone, looking around and inside the car to see his _brother_ without being subtle at all. Though when Happy cleared his throat, he looked at him with a questioning eyebrow.

 

"If you are looking for him, he went to change to the bathroom." Tony gave a nod, though, he could barely hear some incredulousness (was that even a word?) through his tone. "When you told me that I was going to pick up someone, I didn't think I was going to pick up your long lost twin brother, boss." Happy said with a tone that made Tony wince. He forgot. He fucking forgot to tell Happy about Anthony. 

 

"Yeah… Sorry about that, slipped out of my mind Happy." Tony apologized genuinely. "With everything going on we forgot to warn you about this situation." Yeah, that should be enough for now because Tony wasn't in the mood to explain things. Not at all.

 

"My apologies also, Mr. Hogan." He turned his head to look at the owner of the slightly Italian accented voice only to freeze on his place momentarily. Anthony looked seriously good with that black two-piece Tom Ford suit and red-tinted sunglasses. "Also," Tony saw him turn towards himself with a teasing smile and a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you going to hug your brother Tonio? Didn't you miss me?" He asked with his head tilted slightly to the side, his whole posture screaming of natural brother vibes and… 

 

"Of course." He said without thinking as he stepped up to hug him as tightly as possible. "I missed you, Arno." He muttered with a smile before pulling away to look at him. He could see how shocked he was for a few seconds before it vanished to the thin air and a mask of indifference came into its place. "Though, I think we need to go if we want to arrive at the board meeting on time with this traffic, come on." He urged both Anthony and Pepper into the car as Happy made his way towards the driver's seat, who still looked surprised. They probably needed to tell him everything as soon as possible too. 

 

What a joy.

 

"Did you warn Legal and PR by the way?" Was the first thing Anthony asked when the car started to move, his whole body language drastically changing from hi-there-beauty to I-am-tired-don't-touch-me. "Because I have a feeling that they are going to get a heavy bonus for the mess they are about to dish up." 

 

"Yes, we did warn them and sent your information for them to prepare beforehand before our meeting," Pepper said with a confident tone, making Anthony smile slightly before he turned towards Tony himself.

 

"How are you doing, by the way?" He asked, crossing his arms across his chest. "Hope you did sleep well for this shit show Tony." He said and Tony felt a shiver ran through his spine. 

 

"Yep." He confirmed with a smile on his lips, affected by other's smile. It was infectious. "It couldn't be worse than that one time a woman tried to sell everyone that she was pregnant from me." Tony's smile grew bigger as he saw that the other remembered the said event as well with a smile.

 

"I hope it won't be as bad as that," Anthony said with a hopeful tone in his voice, though this ended the conversation and started a weirdly comfortable silence until they arrived at the New York building. "It will be okay," Tony said, like a mantra. "Let's go." And with that he opened the door, Pepper and Anthony following him closely behind. The reaction they got as they get inside the building through the glass doors was very… eventful (not). Everyone and everyone only watched them stroll down the hallway towards his private elevators with their mouths agape.

 

"Well…" Anthony started once they get inside the elevator. "This was easy." Though both Pepper and Tony could hear the sarcasm in his tone. Tony knew that this was only the calm before the storm and he knew that others knew this as well. The elevator ride was uneventful with air tensing every passing minute as they slowly reached the conference room. There was hardly anyone on the floor other than the conference room filled with the board members and… Stane. Who was sending a look mixed with irritation and fake sincerity towards the people inside the conference room? Tony’s insides started churn uncomfortable with the sight of him. The blood pounded in his ears. His heart thudded in his chest. His hands shook. His feet tingled. His vision disfigured as if he were looking through a fish-eye lens. He had to getaway. He had to-

 

“He can’t hurt you,” Anthony said silently, somehow sensing his uneasiness, rubbing his back slightly with the care that you can only see from a father. "I'm here to protect you." And Tony believed the warmth in his voice. He took a shaky breath to calm himself down, actively ignoring everything going around him for a few moments when he was calm enough to look inside the conference room a confident and arrogant mask slipped upon his face. 

 

“Let’s do this.” 

 

Saying that they took the board like a hurricane wouldn’t be enough on Tony’s part. He never saw them like this in his two decades of reign in this company, which was saying something with the scandals he was known in the past as well as that press conference nearly one month ago. It was better once they saw _Arno_ . Oh, how he liked seeing their faces twist to disbelief with the sight of his powerful aura, his no-nonsense attitude towards people who tried to give a shit to them. Though it could be from the way Arno told them how they were related to the most powerful Italian Mafia family and he wouldn’t hesitate to give a little bird some names when they started to annoy him, annoy _them._

 

Stane was a completely different story though. His face was amazing when he told his suspicion about having several moles inside the company. Though Tony needed to give an award to him with how fast he hid his expression when he mentioned that they contacted the FBI for the case. For and all, it was amazing. Next was the press conference. That went as wild as the board meeting, questions came from everywhere and the camera flashes flashed mercilessly once they saw _Arno Edoardo Carbonell_ on stage for the first time ever. Tony was definitely impressed by how the older played with them like a cat played with the mouse. Christine’s face was amazing too, with the color it took.

 

Though towards the last minutes of the press conference, Anthony’s mood shifted. His dark eyes were shining with subtle amusement as he kept staring towards one point, well one person if he wanted to be more accurate. When Tony followed his line of sight, he saw a woman with curly red hair, seemingly taking notes. Though if Anthony focused on her like this, in front of the hungry sharks out for blood, there was definitely something going on with her.

 

“Nice to meet you again, itsy bitsy spider.” Tony heard Anthony whisper under his breath with a bitter smile full of grief on his lips. After that he ended the press conference and Pepper on their tow, they left the stage. Than till their hotel that little smile never left Anthony’s face.

 

***

 

When Anthony mentioned that they could take a walk in New York at 8 AM in the morning, he didn’t really imagine they could end up in front of their childhood home. He seemed… Nostalgic. Weirdly nostalgic. But that wasn't what surprised him the most. It was the way he moved around the rooms with his hands inside his jacket pockets, like he was scared to touch and see the magic broke away. Though it was more like that when he stopped in front of the music room. He was almost like a shy little child when his fingers gripped the fabric on the big piano that his mom used the play to him whenever she had free time from the charities or parties. Tony always enjoyed hearing her play the piano.

 

"Can we bring this to Malibu?" Anthony asked without looking at him, his fingers hovering over the keys. "Please?" He added afterwards like he remembered it at the last minute.

 

"Yeah," Tony cleared his throat awkwardly. "Why not? I mean I have one piano at home, but if you want this one, okay." The small smile he received from the older was worth the awkwardness he felt a few seconds ago. "Though, is this the last thing you wanted to do today?" He asked turning his head away from the older to look around the music room. The only thing he received was a small hum.

 

"We have another little gathering inside a donut shop with secret superhero boy band gatherers." Alright… This was weird. Gathering inside a donut shop for… Secret superhero boy band? What the hell? "Shall we go? I don't really want to hold them up from their job." Tony only shrugged at that, accepting it as the consequence of his life which was a cosmic joke. He had nothing to lose, after all.

 

"Alright, show the way old man." Tony said with a smirk as he let Anthony walk out the music room and towards the main door to exit the house. The only thing he received was an amused snort, which made him smirk slightly. None of them said anything when they get inside the car, this time Anthony driving to their destination. There was a comfortable silence between them. It took twenty minutes for them to reach at the donut shop that Anthony mentioned.

 

"Here we are." He said after he parked the car close to the donut shop with a small smile on his lips. "It's kinda cute to be honest, Morgan loved it." Tony turned his head towards the older when he mentioned the name. Tony's mind wandered towards the laughing little girl in his arms. "Come on." Tony followed him, dismissing the dread filling his stomach.

 

"Ah, here they are." Tony heard the older mutter silently as they walked towards one of the empty tables. When he looked around, subtly of course, he didn't see anything other than some police officers- wait.

 

"Tell me they are police officers." Tony muttered, his voice barely above a whisper. Though when he saw Anthony gave a negative sign with his hands, he let out a little sigh. When did his life become this? Being surrounded with secret alphabet soup agency agents was only in goddamn movies.

 

"Be ready." Tony heard the older mutter after the old lady brought coffee for them and left with huge amount of tips. How could he be ready for this? Though he nodded no matter at that.

 

Not long after their little convo, Tony saw Director Fury walk down towards them alongside with Agent himself. They sat in front of them with barely there surprise in their eyes as they saw Anthony, who was yet to look at them. "I'm not going to ask how you know we would be here," Fury said with a blank expression on his face while signalling the old lady to bring them coffee too. "Or how you did spot our agent yesterday at all, Carbonell. Not yet at least." Tony rolled his eyes at that.

 

"Oh, you mean Miss Romanova?" Anthony asked and took a sip from his coffee. "Well, I can say she has a little bit of fame from her time with Red Room." He shrugged and Tony smirked slightly the way Fury's hand froze before he could take a sip from his coffee, as well as Coulson. Though it vanished from their face as quick as it came.

 

"How do you know that?" Coulson asked calmly, his eyes focused on Anthony, like he was the dangerous thing in this room. Tony let out a snort, making both Fury and Coulson turn towards himself with furrowed eyebrows.

 

"You really didn't think that we would've sat through this after some secret agency that we never knew about came to our door and demanded to speak with me and my brother, you are not that naive, are you?" Tony asked with a serious tone and expression he reserved to use only with military and board members. Though he felt amused and annoyed at the same time when he saw that they were exactly expecting that to happen from their expressions. "You have to be kidding me." He muttered, annoyed by them already. They really were arrogant. He wondered how did they become secret agents with this behavior.

 

"Anyway." Anthony said as he patted Tony's knee softly to calm him down. "We are going to do this with our way, Director Fury. You can ask questions **after** you do things we want from you successfully." He said with the calmness that Tony was way too familiar, which made him frown slightly. It was Howard's don't-fuck-with-me-or-you will-see-the-consequences expression whenever he was dealing with company or with Tony himself. Did he had that expression too?

 

"I honestly don't care what you think about this, because if you don't do the things we want from you, you will be saying goodbye to SI funding. Which is more than half of SHIELD's income, am I right?" Anthony asked with sickeningly sweet tone, which seemingly managed to annoy both of the agents successfully.

 

"What do you want?" Fury asked between his teeth, and stopped Coulson from speaking with a sign. Tony could feel the tension is getting higher and higher with every passing moment.

 

"Howard's research. Every one of them." Anthony said with a tone that left no argument on the matter. "I am deep down your servers Fury, I know how much research he has there, and I want them, do you hear me?" He said casually, sipping his coffee. "Because I am not far away from being pettiness."

 

"Plus," Tony spoke after taking a sip from his coffee, which was already cold and bitter. "I think you need to do a pest control inside your… little formation." He finished with an indifferent expression. Like Anthony said, both of the spies furrowed slightly at that, their eyes narrowed.

 

"What do you mea-" Coulson started but a loud shattering noise and a painful shout coming from an agent behind, all of them got startled. Both Fury and Coulson pulled their guns from their belts, pulling both Tony and Anthony down, under the table. 

 

"What's going on? Agent Romanoff, report!" Fury barked through his comm, as the bullets continued to rain, shattering the glass walls and every other furniture inside the donut shop and from what Tony understand, whatever Agent Romanoff told Fury wasn't something pleasant at all from his expression.

 

"Motherfucker! It's the goddamn Winter Soldier." Fury said heatedly, looking both Tony and Anthony, who seemed to freeze after hearing the name.

 

"Activate your suit." Anthony said with a stiff voice as he tapped the side of his glasses. "And protect these people, I will help Itsy Bitsy Spider." What the fuck? He didn't want Anthony to go anywhere near that freaking Winter Soldier.

 

"Arno-" He started to speak but the older was already gone, his black (Nightwalker he had said yesterday) suit completely engulfed him before he blasted into the sky. Everyone at least for a few seconds, looked after him.

 

"Tell me you can do that too." Was the last thing before he heard from Coulson before everything exploded around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay... So I am late one month again 😅
> 
> So what's your thoughts about the terrible cliffhanger 👀☕
> 
> What do you think will happen in the next chapter? I would like to hear them!
> 
> Plus, I decided that Fire On Fire by Sam Smith is awesome for this story ☺️ Do you have any music recommendations?


	8. Breakdown

Tony didn’t always like to fight outside his suit, not really. But when the desperate times called him out, he definitely tried to manage on his own, like he did with Killian and with the Super Soldiers in Siberia later on. He didn't need training, despite what others thought of him being a helpless civilian without his suit. Every one of them thought like that, even his science bro. And because of this, he  _ needed _ to join the mandatory training sessions held by their dear old Captain, while trying to finish the updates on their gear and uniforms. There were updates for StarkTabs and StarkPhones too. 

This whole you need to train yourself because you are a civilian schtick annoyed him on his best days and he got downright angry on his worst days. But again no one really listened to his reasons for not to join, not at all. He could barely stand up whenever he got the smallest cold on the world due to the freakin arc reactor diminishing his lung capacity. Long story short, the moment he found Romanoff and Barnes fighting hand to hand, he had landed on the roof silently and watched them a few seconds and thought how he could intervene in the best way possible, without taking his armor off, preferably.

 It didn’t take him long to find an opening to intervene though. The Winter Soldier’s greatest asset was his metal arm and it was his weakest point as well. Even though it was useful most of the time to the man himself after breaking HYDRA’s condition, it was heavy. Heavy for a super soldier standard. (He knew Barnes had the knock off version of the serum and it was strong too, but it couldn’t really match with Erskine’s own formula.) He saw the results of how he lost his balance immediately and got a hard time to gain it again on that fateful day in Siberia when he blasted the damned thing of with the unibeam. 

“Let’s blast that cursed thing again, shall we?” He muttered as a smirk creeped upon his lips behind the mask. “Widow, get out the way.” He warned Romanoff, just before his repulsor powered up and hit the metal arm, which flew away from the man across the roof with the force of the blast. The Winter Soldier lost his balance immediately, as he fell down a few feet away from his original position. And even though when he tried to get up a few moments later Romanoff hit his head with a hard kick which knocked off the super soldier, surprisingly. 

 “Good work.” Tony muttered as his helmet retracted back while walking towards the metal arm. Romanoff didn’t say anything back. Though he could definitely feel her calculating eyes behind his back. “You can’t have it.” She said coldly immediately the moment Tony grabbed the arm, which forced a cold laugh out of his lips. But other than that he didn’t say anything as he walked back towards the Winter Soldier, leaned back and grabbed him from his waist tightly. He gave her an equally cold look over before his helmet engulfed his head again. “Nice to see you Agent Romanoff. Till next time.” Then he flew into the sky, leaving Romanoff on the roof all alone. He might be glad to see a familiar face, but he wasn’t going to trust someone he knew that can, and will backstab him anytime whenever it suited them. It was a tough learned lesson, but he had learned it after Leipzig and Siberia.

 Rogers made sure that he learned it. 

 When he landed on the ground, he saw the vultures circling the whole area with cameras and microphones in their hands. It was way too familiar sight for him, if he was going to be honest. After every mission, they were there watching Stark Relief Foundation helping the cleaning and paying the bills for damages they caused. Plus he had no doubt that they were broadcasting live. They were surely going to make big headlines. Especially himself and his younger self. Ugh… Such a PR nightmare. The personnel in PR was going to take a big bonus at the end of the year for this for sure. He let out a sigh before focusing on to matter at hand. His eye immediately searched Agent or Fury to deliver his package and leave him permanently with them. “Agent, nice to see you alive.” He said once he saw the man he was seeking sitting at the back of a van while a medic attended his bleeding eyebrow. The man quickly waved off the medic once he saw him and the package he had. 

 “Is that-” He asked, his eyebrows furrowed slightly and turned concerned once his eyes landed on the loose and fried cables hanging from where his left arm was supposed to be. Tony gave a nod, confirming his concern immediately before he left the unconscious man on the ground like a sack of potatoes. Though he knew that he wouldn’t stay unconscious for long due to serum. They needed to find a way to make it easy to control him, without the trigger words and preferably somewhere away from SHIELD/HYDRA’s hands. Though he knew it was going to be hard. He could only hope that everything was going to be okay until he had enough proof to throw them in front of the jackals or to the deep space like he did with that Squidward like alien. “Okay. We will take him from here, Mr. Carbonell. I will inform the directo-”

 “Where is Tony?” He asked without waiting for him to finish his sentence, his expression cold and his lips pressed into a thin line. Agent pointed somewhere behind him without saying anything and when he turned where the man pointed, he saw him sit there, the armor still on him, as a young medic treated his now black eye. He seemed annoyed and tired. Without saying anything Tony made his way towards him, though before he arrived there his younger self (He needed to call himself **Arno** and him _Tony_. It started to get confusing.) turned his head to look at him which made him wince and close his eyes tightly. 

 “Hey.” He muttered softly once he was close enough. His younger self muttered a low hi, like he didn’t want to speak at all. It was understandable though, everything was coming one after another. After that, he turned his attention to the young medic, who was having a hard time to concentrate on her job. Tony could understand that, he really could; seeing not one but two Tony Stark in front of you this close should be frustrating, if he understood right from her blushing cheeks but it wasn’t really the right time.

 “He has a mild-concussion; he can take Advil for the pain.” The girl said as she cleared her throat, gulping down subtly. “He has minor scratches over his face and a black eye. Other than that you have nothing to fear about sir.” She said before hurrying away towards another wounded agent, leaving Ton-  _ Arno _ and Tony alone (Geez, it was going to take some time till he could get used to call himself a different name). Arno let out an exhausted sigh as he helped Tony get up from the crumbled wall he was sitting, who grumbled under his breath silently as they walked towards their car, which was surprisingly intact after all of this… gun fight.

 “Can we go home?

 Arno took a few seconds to answer him with a slight nod. Even though home was a small cabin near a lake for him, where he could teach his daughter to swim alongside him with laughter…

 “Yeah, we can go home.”

**ÆÆÆÆÆ**

 Tony didn’t know what to think as they flew to Malibu as he kept glancing at Anthony’s concerningly blank expression and dark eye bags covered with heavy concealers. None of them spoke after this morning’s events. Not even after a really angry Pepper threatened to have their heads and drown both of them inside of an insane amount of paperwork. That didn’t get any reaction from them either, which left her incredibly confused as both of them retired to their rooms to prepare after agreeing with her. It was bizarre.

 “Internet is full of articles about the fight/attack this morning.” Pepper said calmly as she looked through websites with her newly constructed StarkTab. Tony saw Anthony sigh with the edge of his eye, but otherwise he didn’t say anything. Though, Tony was not sharing the same calmness or whatever bullshit that Anthony was serving. He was curious and a curious Tony was never a good thing for anyone, because he did everything to learn whatever caused his curiosity.

 “What are they saying?” He asked with a barely there nervousness and curiosity. Pepper raised her head momentarily to give him an assessing look before she sighed and gave the tablet to him without saying anything and he took it. Though she didn’t seemed to be in a bad mood, which was definitely saying something. 

He adjusted the tablet in his hand before looking through the articles or watched the poor quality YouTube videos of both Anthony and him inside their respective armors saving the people who couldn’t get away from the bullet rain. Both of the articles and the videos comment sections had various amounts of feelings. Some of them were curious about what caused the attack on the first place and who attacked; some of them were discussing the armors on both of them and how they looked out of freaking sci-fi movie; and some of them were speaking about the lucky civilians that had been saved with minor injuries. There were a few negative ones too, like how Tony was a hypocrite showing up with these things after telling that they weren’t going to make weapons. Yeah… they needed to address this one. Definitely.

 “They are dubbing both of you as  _ Iron Men _ .” Pepper chuckled after a few minutes of silence, which made both men turn their attention to her. “The Night,” She pointed Anthony with her head before pointing Tony. “and The Day respectively. Honestly it suits you both.” She said with an amused smile on her lips.

 “Yeah, it does.” Tony heard Anthony say with a barely there smile on his lips. He noticed that his eyes lingered longingly on Pepper for a few seconds before turning his head away from her, his eyes shut down tightly as he breathed deeply. It was like he was trying to calm himself down which made both Tony and Pepper frown as they looked at each other. He knew from the look she gave him that both of them were thinking the same thing. The tell tales were there from the start, if he was going to be honest. He saw the signs himself pretty close for the past week. He was close to having a breakdown, from what he understood from them. And then there was Friday’s explanation about his daughter and family… He had nothing to go back; he didn’t have a home anymore, didn’t have his family or his kids with him to comfort him in his distress.

 He had  _ nothing _ .

 They needed to do something soon.

*******

"I want to know everything." Tony said the moment they stepped inside the living room alongside Rhodey (which was a good surprise since they found him waiting for them at the airport) and Pepper, who was still looking at the tablet in her hand. Everyone stopped their movement, throwing him a look full of question. Except Anthony. He was tense. Incredibly tense, and even though Tony knew why, he didn't want to acknowledge it at all. 

He knew everyone was sensitive about 'telling everything' to Tony after fainting when he heard his godfather's betrayal. Especially Anthony was sensitive and Tony had a sense that it wasn't only because he thought Tony's well being. It seemed like it was in a more personal level for the older. And somehow Tony knew the reason for it. "I want to know, why in the hell you came here, came to this freaking  _ time period _ ." He scoffed. "I don't care for the sensitivities you have at the moment for whatever reason, I. Want. To. Know." He demanded. He was barely aware that Friday's sphere got activated and her hologram stood near Anthony with a frown on her eyebrows. Pepper and Rhodey wasn't different from the female AI either. 

Tony pretty much knew this was way too sudden, but he couldn't really think of anything other confronting the older like this.

"You think you can handle it?" Anthony asked with a raised eyebrow and a cruel smirk on his lips, though his eyes were empty, dark and void of any emotions. This pulled some reaction from his friends, well from Rhodey and Friday at least. Rhodey came closer to him as he put a protective hand on his shoulder while Friday's expresion changed from confusion to something he couldn't really identify from this position, Pepper only gulped down as she back stepped.

"Boss-" Friday started but a low snarl from the older shut her up as a worried frown came back on her face. It was weird. Anthony was always playful with the female AI, they sometimes snarked at each other but that was it. This never happened before and it was concerning.

"You can't. Let me say it." Anthony said as he tilted his head to the side slightly. "You can't know what being manipulated by your whole goddamn team means, you can't know what being gaslighted and blinded by the ones you trust to protect you with their lives." Anthony shrugged. "You don't know what happens when you transport a goddamn nuke on your back to a black hole to destroy an alien Armada waiting there to fucking kill every living thing on the whole goddamn world!" He shouted at their face, startling them with the sudden anger came into his face and eyes. "Just to get back a goddamn artifact! Just to collect a fucking stone to kill half of the whole goddamn universe!" Anthony gave out a manic laugh which made Friday move in front of them.

"Don't touch him." She whispered to them while her eyes still on Anthony. "No matter what don't touch him." Tony saw Rhodey open his mouth ask something but it got cut again.

"No one listened to me when I told them something bigger was going to come for earth, we saved the earth with only lucky against the billions of ships waiting at the outer space." Anthony turned to look at them. Tony noticed that something had changed within the other but he wasn't sure what. "Then Ultron happened… " Anthony blinked a few times, seemingly lost in memories, that was the exact moment Rhodey noticed Dum-E waiting behind him with a fire extinguisher in his claw, aimed at Anthony for some reason. "Oh god Jarvis…" He whispered to himself, his eyes tearing up immediately as he shut them up. "I'm sorry… I sorry I lost you…" After that the tears fell down from his cheeks but weirdly they were evaporating even before they reached down to his chin.

"What happened to Jarvis?" Tony heard Pepper ask softly as she stepped towards Anthony slowly, seemingly ignoring everyone in the room. Though when Anthony opened his eyes, it wasn't the dark browns that were looking at her. They were glowing with an angry red. 

"He died." Anthony said as his attention slide to her. "Ultron… Killed him, tore his core codes apart and scattered to whole internet." He whispered before closing his eyes again. "He destroyed Novi Grad, Sokovia's capital city after making himself a vibranium body." He gave an airy laugh, as his veins started to glow faint orange. Tony recognized this. He recognized this story from two nights before. He knew that the older was leaving some information.

"Thousands died… Thousands of innocent people who had nothing to do with any of  _ our _ shit!" He shouted and with that all of his veins started to glow violently alongside his eyes. It was a scary sight if Tony was going to be honest. He knew that Anthony wasn't normal; he was stronger, faster and now he had this. Glowing eyes and veins with a very hot breath. 

Wait... what?

"Miss Potts, please get back now." Friday said sternly which made her futures seem way more older than she seemed. "It isn't safe."

"Safe?" Anthony asked as his eyes locked with Friday's, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing "Nothing is safe on this whole goddamn universe!" He shouted as Pepper hurried back behind Tony and Rhodey. "NOWHERE IS SAFE WHILE THAT GODDAMN PURPLE GRAPE IS ALIVE!" He shouted, no basically screamed. That's when Tony saw small reek of smoke coming from olders clothes and furniture close to him.

"Boss,calm yourself down. Immediately." Friday snarled out the words while subtly motioning Dum-E to get ready the fire extinguisher, which the bot did quickly to Tony's surprise. "You are burning up, your right arm's circuits will melt if you continue in this state." Which made everyone frown. Right arm's circuits? What in the hell did that meant?

"What does that mean?" Rhodey asked the question for everyone, trying to ignore that Anthony was burning up the couch and some parts of his clothes.

"I lost the arm." Anthony answered the question, his eyes still burning with hot angry red and his veins and skin glowing with that orange color. A cruel smirk that didn't really suit him appeared on his lips. "When I died."

"What…" Tony asked, horror exploding inside his chest. "What does that mean?"

Though he didn't get his answer when Friday shouted now towards Dum-E, who sprayed the fire extinguisher towards Anthony, whose body tensed up immediately with the sudden contact of cold particles. That was then fire system got activated and water, exactly the one above of Anthony sprayed him with more cold water. Everyone could hear the hiss sound the water made when it contacted the olders hot skin even after a few minutes later. Though it stopped the moment Anthony started to cough up water and practically fell down his knees before collapsing to the ground.

"Oh my god…" Pepper whispered, her eyes tearing up as Rhodey went to hug her while still looking at the man laying on the ground unconsciously. While Tony was just staying there, looking at Anthony with big and confused eyes. 

"Thank you Jarvis." He heard Friday whisper, though the AI didn't answer her back and Tony wouldn't blame him really after what they heard. "Colonel, can you help to lay him down on his bed please?" She turned her head to ask which Rhodey nodded immediately before patting Pepper's back softly before walking towards the older, raising him up and making his way to upstairs. Friday's hologram disappeared as her sphere started to follow the two closely.

"I should've waited…" Tony whispered and not long after he felt Pepper's hand on his back. "I-" He choked up when a sob cut his sentence as tears slipped down from his face.

Anthony was right after all. He couldn't handle it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... I'm sorry that the chapter update is late... I can assure you all the story isn't abandoned. Nope. Though the updates can be irregular because of my school and job. I don't have much time to write but I love this story. Meaning this story will not be abandoned.
> 
> Though I would like to hear what would you like to see in the next chapter? 👀☕
> 
> Do you want a different perspective, other than Arno and Tony I mean? Maybe Pepper or a completely different persons perspective?


End file.
